Volume XXVIII
January 1950
Number 3
FLORIDA HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
C ONTENTS
The National Farmers’ Alliance Convention
of 1890, and its “Ocala Demands”
Samuel Proctor
Negro Slavery in Florida, Part II
Edwin L. Williams Jr.
Francis P. Fleming in the War for
Southern Independence
Letters from the Front
Edward C. Williamson
Now is the Time
Hillsborough County Historical Commission
Historical Association of Osceola County
Fort Clinch Memorial Association
The Halifax Region
Terra Ceia Indian Mound
Archeological Sites
The Jacksonville Historical Society
Papers
The Historical Association of Southern Florida
Tequesta
The Florida Historical Society
The Annual Meeting
An offer from The University of Florida
SINGLE COPIES ONE DOLLAR
SUBSCRIPTION FOUR DOLLARS
(Copyright, 1950, by the Florida Historical Society. Reentered, as second class matter
November 21, 1947, at the post office at Tallahassee, Florida, under the Act of
August 24, 1912.)
Office of publication, Tallahassee, Florida
Published quarterly by
THE FLORIDA HISTORICAL SOCIETY
St. Augustine, Florida
THE NATIONAL FARMERS’ ALLIANCE
CONVENTION OF 1890 AND ITS
“OCALA DEMANDS”
by SAMUEL PROCTOR
Probably there were none as surprised or as pleased
as were Florida’s four delegates 1 to the National
Farmers’Alliance Convention when it was decided that
the 1890 meeting of the National Alliance Supreme
Council would be held in Jacksonville. Politically a part
of the “solid South”, and with a population of only a
few thousand, it seemed scarcely possible that frontier
Florida would be chosen, nor could it well play host to
any national organization, even one as politically adolescent as was the National Farmers’ Alliance in 1889.
However, Florida’s invitation was accepted by the convention which met in St. Louis in December of that
year. 2
This decision to hold the convention in Florida may
be viewed from two angles. First, it would prove an
excellent opportunity to advertise the state. Secondly, it
might formulate once and for all the crucial struggle
which had been brewing between conservative and radical
wings of the Alliance. The first of these views was particularly prominent in the minds of the Florida delegation when they extended their hospitable invitation. Such
a convention, with its resultant publicity, would not only
bring hundreds of delegates and visitors to Florida but
it would also tend to attract settlers to the state. 3 The
State Alliance might even be successful in luring lukewarm South Floridians into the organization. 4
Jacksonville, because of its size, its location and
because it had adequate hotel and restaurant facilities
to accommodate a large throng, was chosen as the place
1. The delegates were Robert F. Rogers, Live Oak, President of the
Florida Alliance ; A. S. Mann, Jacksonville; Oswald Wilson, originally from New York; and H. C. Randall, Purcell.
2. N. A. Dunning, The Farmers’ Alliance History and Agricultural
Digest. (Washington, 1891) p. 131.
3. The Weekly Floridian, Tallahassee, Florida, June 11, 1890.
4. James O. Knauss, “The Farmers’Alliance In Florida,” The South
Atlantic Quarterly, XXV, 300-315, (July, 1926).
162
THE FLORIDA HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
for the meeting. However, Jacksonville’s citizens seemed
disinterested. When the time came to appropriate funds
to help defray expenses which the Alliance would necessarily incur, the people were not overly-generous. 5 The
Board of Trade and the Sub-Tropical Exposition officials agreed to allow free use of the Sub-Tropical
building, and to release half of the gate receipts, after
expenses were deducted, to help with costs. They insisted
that the building’s management be kept in the Board of
Director’s hands. Robert F. Rogers, president of Florida’s Alliance group, valued this offer at approximately
$1,500. 6
Rogers knew that the Alliance might very well cancel
its plans to meet in Florida when it received the offer
from Jacksonville. He approached John F. Dunn, President of the Merchants’National Bank of Ocala, with his
problem and asked him if Ocala would play host to the
farm group. Dunn, realizing what this would mean to
the merchants of Ocala and consequently to his bank,
enthusiastically agreed. He immediately pledged $5,000
of his own money and promised that Ocala would provide
an equal amount. On the basis of this new proposal,
President Rogers journeyed to Washington and recommended that the Executive Committee change the meeting place to Ocala. On June 20, 1890, Rogers’s recommendation was approved by unanimous vote of the
committee.
Ocala offered many inducements to secure the Alliance plum. They allowed free use of their Semi-Tropical
Exposition building and grounds, with the Alliance managing the building. All gate receipts were to be given
to the Alliance, members were to be entertained at halfprice and the National Alliance officers were to be
housed, fed and entertained free of charge. Ocala hoped
that railroad rates to and from the city would be reduced.
In addition, $7,000 was appropriated to aid Florida’s
5. Telegram from Rogers to John F. Dunn, Ocala, Florida, dated June
21, 1890. Reprinted in Ocala Banner, June 27, 1890.
6. Ocala Banner, July 4, 1890.
NATIONAL FARMERS ’ A LLIANCE C ONVENTION
163
Alliance in setting up its exhibitions. Ocala’s offer was
worth about $15,000. Her citizens were excited about the
publicity they knew they would receive. The Ocala
Banner joyously proclaimed: “All eyes are turned on
Ocala. Ocala's supreme moment has come and we must
be equal to the occasion.” 7
While plans for the “Ocala Convention” were being
formulated on both national and state levels during the
months of 1890, portentous events were taking place in
the South and throughout the nation. 1890 was an election
year and the Alliance worked earnestly along political
lines. Drawing inspiration from the platform adopted
by the St. Louis delegates, the Southern Alliance leaders
generally agreed that every effort should be made to
capture the existing state machinery of the Democratic
Party. 8 Third party action was scarcely thought of. To
lead this fight, the Southern Alliance chose as president,
Colonel L. I. Polk of Raleigh, North Carolina. He had
been actively engaged in the work of lining up the farmer
vote of his state solidly against the old Bourbon machine
and in favor of Alliance principles and candidates.
The Southern Alliance was not interested in organizing a third party that would divide the white vote of
the South. 9 The National Economist, which reflected accurately the official position “promised positively that
a third party will not be formed.” South Carolina progressives, under the leadership of Ben Tillman, made
steady progress in securing control of the state’s Democratic Party machinery.
Colonel Polk furnished in North Carolina the leadership for the farmers’movement that Tillman provided
in South Carolina. Under the influence of Alliancemen,
the North Carolina State convention adopted a platform
that expressed sympathy with “the efforts of the farmers
to throw off the yoke of Bourbonism." 10 The spirit of
revolt was equally strong in Georgia. The Alliance was
7.
8.
9.
10.
Idem.
John D. Hicks, The Populist Party, (Minneapolis, 1931), 153.
Ibid., 170.
Appletons’ Annual Cyclopaedia, 1890. 625.
164
T HE F LORIDA H ISTORICAL Q UARTERLY
determined to overthrow the ruling Bourbon aristocracy
and take over the party. All the gubernatorial candidates in Georgia in 1890 were Alliancemen and many
of the candidates for the State legislature were named
by the Alliance. One of the Georgia Alliance nominees
for Congress in this election was the spectacular Tom
Watson of the 10th District. Watson, a fiery country
lawyer who battled the industrial capitalists in Georgia,
was one of the youngest Alliance leaders. 11 In Tennessee,
Texas, and Arkansas Alliance candidates were successful. 12
When the Alliance met in Ocala in December the
election results had been tallied and they were extremely
gratifying. Alliance candidates for governor in South
Carolina, Georgia, and Tennessee, and the Alliance supported candidate in Texas had all been successful. The
legislatures of eight southern states-Alabama, Florida,
Georgia, Missouri, Mississippi, North Carolina, South
Carolina, and Tennessee-were counted as safely within
the Alliance grasp. Several Alliancemen won seats in
Congress. Forty-four in the House professed Alliance
views and two or three in the Senate. 13
In the states where the more notable Alliance victories were scored much was expected of the newly
elected lgislatures. Curiously enough, however, not a
great deal was accomplished by them. The South Carolina legislature reapportioned seats in the House which
was favorable to the back-country whites, but it drastically cut Tillman’s state educational proposals. The
railway commission bill that finally was passed was so
unsatisfactory that the governor vetoed it. 14
Elsewhere in the South, results were much the same.
The railway bill that became law in North Carolina was
not unlike the measure that Governor Tillman wrathfully
11. C. Vann Woodward, Tom Watson, Agrarian Rebel (New York, 1937),
160-161.
12. Hicks, op. cit., 177-178.
13. Ibid., 178.
14. Francis B. Simkins, The Tillman Movement in South Carolina, Duke
Univ. Press, 1926. 147-149.
NATIONAL FARMERS’ A LLIANCE C ONVENTION
165
vetoed in South Carolina. In Georgia, the right of the
railroad commission to fix railway rates was asserted;
banking corporations were more closely circumscribed in
their operations; blacklists were forbidden and a twelvehour day for railroad employees was established. But
here, as elsewhere in the South, the pressing problem
of crop mortgages was left untouched and in general
hard times were not alleviated. 15
It was painfully apparent from these failures that
the formula of working through the Democratic party
had proved entirely inadequate. Signs pointed unmistakably in the direction of a national third-party organization and it was upon this new note that the Ocala
Convention met. This meeting was to become the mecca
of all the leading advocates of the third-party idea.
There were many other problems facing the convention when it was called to order by President Polk
at noon on December 2, 1890. The sub-treasury plan was
of prime importance and it was hoped that some decision
could be reached on this program introduced at the St.
Louis meeting the year before by Dr. C. W. Macune. 16
That meeting had endorsed the plan by an overwhelming
majority; only seven votes were east against its adoption.
In the months before the Ocala meeting the sub-treasury
measure became a rallying cry of the order and by
common consent it was accepted as one of the great
Alliance principles. However, there were conservative
elements within the Alliance who were not sure that the
sub-treasury plan would prove the cure-all for the
American farmers’ troubles. So the conservatives tried
to rally forces to delay and oppose action on it. 17
Meanwhile, Florida Alliancemen had worked arduously since September planning and preparing for the
December meeting. At a conclave in the Ocala Opera
15. Alex M. Arnett, The Populist Movement in Georgia. (New York,
1922), 120-122.
16. The sub-treasury report was received from the “Committee of the
Monetary System.” C. W. Macune, past president of the Southern
Alliance and past editor of its official journal, National Economist,
was an important member of this committee.
17. Dunning, op. cit., 137.
166
THE FLORIDA HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
House in September, the organizing and planning committees formulated plans for a state agricultural exhibition to be held while the convention was meeting in
the city. It was decided that each county would have
individual exhibits which would show the “growing of
corn, cotton, oats, rye, rice, field peas, ground peas,
sweet potatoes, sugar cane, sugar, syrup, hay, tobacco,
citrus fruits, peas, peaches, plums, bananas and all
vegetables.” The women of Florida would display
“wines, jellies, handiwork, needle and fine art.” 18 Exhibits of yellow pine, hard woods, naval stores, native
and blooded horses, cattle, hogs, sheep, goats and poultry
were planned.
Prizes were announced for the best products in each
field. Prizes included $3.00 for the “best and largest
number of homemade vinegars;” $3.00 for the “best and
largest number of varieties of Florida pickles;” $15.00
for the “best bull, any age; ” $20.00 for the “best stallion,
any age ” and $5.00 for the “best samples of home-made
smoked bacon, consisting of a ham shoulder and side.” 19
The agricultural exposition was to be held in the
Semi-Tropical building, which was divided into several
sections. The north side was reserved for South Florida,
south and west wings for East and West Florida, and
the east wing was reserved for the ladies department.
The building was filled with display stands and tables,
which were built from Florida woods. These were elegantly decorated with “corn stalks, tobacco stems, oats
and other products of the farm." 20 A fountain and pool
decorated the center of the building. Over the bandstand
hung a large handpainted banner with the legend, THE
NATIONAL FARMERS ALLIANCE EXPOSITION. The auditorium
was decorated with red, white and blue bunting and
American flags.
It was planned to house delegates in private homes
and in the Ocala House, the sumptuous hotel built by
18. Ocala Banner, Sept. 19, 1890.
19. Ibid., Oct. 24, 1890.
20. The Florida Dispatch, Farmer and Fruit-Grower, Nov. 25, 1890.
NATIONAL FARMERS’ ALLIANCE CONVENTION
167
Henry B. Plant. Seventy-five cottages were built for an
expected overflow crowd. A race track and tournament
grounds were constructed behind the Exposition building and an amusement area for children was arranged
in the vicinity. In addition, a band was engaged for the
whole season for the “appreciation of all those with
music in their soul.” 21
Ocala looked forward to a throng of delegates and
visitors and they were not disappointed. Accredited
delegations were registered from all the Southern states
and Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Maryland,
Missouri, North and South Dakota, Pennsylvania and
West Virginia. Two delegates represented the Indian
Territory. In all, there were eighty-eight delegates registered, and additional delegations were expected from
Oklahoma, California, Michigan and New Mexico. 22
There were hundreds of visitors.
Delegates began arriving Saturday afternoon, November 29. The Florida Central and Peninsular Railroad
brought in many delegates early in the day. A large
crowd arrived on a special train that evening. Early
guests included Governor-elect Buchanan of Tennessee,
National Alliance President L. I. Polk, Congressman
Ben H. Clover of Kansas, President McDowell of the
Tennessee Alliance, McGrath of the Kansas State Alliance and Colonel Livingston of Georgia.
Ocala’s churches were crowded on Sunday morning.
Many attended services at the Baptist Church; others
heard the Methodist sermon “Prohibition in Prophecy.”
Crowds poured in to Ocala all day Sunday. New arrivals
included W. S. Morgan, the author of “History of the
Alliance” and editor of the Agricultural Wheel; T. S.
Adams, President of the Louisiana Alliance; U. S. Hall,
President of the Missouri Alliance; H. C. Deming,
General Manager of the Agricultural Manufacturer’s
Association of the United States; N. A. Dunning, editor
22. New York Times, Dec. 3, 1890.
168
THE FLORIDA HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
of the National Economist; W. C. McCune, chairman of
the National Executive Committee of the Alliance; and
Colonel Rice, head of Georgia’s state penitentiary.
Florida’s Governor and Mrs. Francis P. Fleming and
their party arrived Sunday. In this group was Mrs. C. E.
Dyke, lady commissioner from Leon county. 23
The Ocala meeting was to prove a most important
gathering. Following as it did immediately after the
close of a political campaign of remarkable surprises, it
was compelled to bear a burden of pressure from both
the old parties-one being driven by disaster to the verge
of despair, and the other elated by success to the point
of dictatorial assumption. The Republican party hoped
that the meeting would result in certain indiscretions
which would break the power of the Alliance, and permit
that party to regain its waning strength. The Democratic
party was anxious to have the Alliance recede from its
advanced position on economic questions, in order to
make cooperation more probable. Again there was a
strong element from the West, demanding independent
action, and at the same time showing, as the result of
such a movement, the fruits of the recent election. This
faction was opposed by a conservative force which considered it unwise and untimely.
Under these disruptive conditions the delegates
began their work. For weeks and months certain newspapers and individuals had criticised the Alliance and
most of its leaders. Their attacks were bold and brutal,
causing discomfort and embarrassment. 24 To the Ocala
meeting came those who slandered the Alliance and those
who praised it - politicians, statesmen, writers, labor
representatives and sightseers. Many of the nation’s
newspapers were represented. W. S. McAllister reported
for the Associated Press and wrote special stories for
the Times Democrat of New Orleans and the Age-Herald
of Birmingham. W. G. F. Price wrote for the New York
Herald. Henry R. Chamberlain reported for Charles
23. Ocala Banner, Dec. 5, 1890.
24. Dunning, op. cit., 178.
NATIONAL FARMERS’ ALLIANCE CONVENTION
169
Dana’s paper, the New York Sun, and Henry George
represented the New York Standard, the mouthpiece of
the single tax doctrine.
Issues facing the delegates in Ocala were of great
importance to the whole country. The delegates hoped to
begin work immediately, but ceremonies and formalities
were scheduled first. On assembling, R. F. Rogers, the
Florida representative, proposed that the afternoon
meeting be opened to the general public and that Governor Fleming be invited to speak.
The description of the gala parade in the Ocala
Banner indicates the lively interest taken by all classes
in the convention. Major C. W. Campbell was chief
marshal. Leading the procession were the Ocala Rifles,
followed by carriages with the distinguished guests. Interspersed between the carriages were the vehicles of the
Ocala fire department. It was reported that the “hose
carriage of Protective Hose Company No. 2, drawn by
their magnificent bay charger, Hercules, attracted general attention.”
The crowd filled the Exposition building. The program was opened by the song “Pull for the Farmer,” the
official Kansas campaign number. Governor Fleming's
welcome speech was uproariously applauded. Rogers
spoke and the newspapers reported that he depicted “the
beauties, attractions and fascinations of the glorious
State of Florida . . . the loveliness and bewitching graces
of our noble women, and congratulated the delegates
that they had come with their wives and sweethearts, or
else the superior virtue and charms of our ladies would
have so bewitched the men that they never would have
got home again.” 25
The Ocala Banner was more eloquent than the
speakers when it wrote: “The Day was a poem of sunshine and gentle breezes, the procession imposing, and
the opening services of the Exposition the most successful and finest that it has ever had in its history.” 26
170
THE FLORIDA HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
The Convention’s main work began with the annual
message read by President Polk. Polk was a native of
North Carolina. Entering politics in 1860, he advocated
the establishment of a state department of agriculture
and became its first commissioner in 1877. In 1886 he
founded a weekly newspaper, the Progressive Farmer,
in which, from its first issue, he urged a union of North
Carolina farmers to support such political measures as
would best serve their interests. 27 When the Southern
Alliance entered North Carolina, he merged his organization with that of the national order without hesitation,
and became secretary of the North Carolina State
Alliance. His pungent editorials in the Progressive
Farmer and his facility as an orator were well known.
Apparently he was in perfect accord with Macune, but
he was not the type of individual to be dominated by the
ideas of another, and he was quite as ambitious as
Macune himself.
At the time of the Ocala meeting Polk was described
as "a man of medium height and build, good form,
weighs about 160 pounds, hair, mustache and gotee once
as black as the raven’s wing, is now slightly frosted with
the blasts of forty-five winters. An eye from which
darts the spark of intelligence, knowledge of the world
and of men, and withal a glint of genial good nature and
hospitable intent toward all, and by his gracious manners
and frank, open speech captivated all whom he met. . .” 28
At the St. Louis meeting, when prospects of union
between the Northern and Southern Alliance failed,
each of the organizations issued a list of “Demands.”
These platforms enunciated in clear and convincing
statements the mutual political aims of the Alliance
groups. Grist for the campaign mills of 1890 was furnished by these resolutions. By 1890 the full effects of
the deflation in real estate values, following the collapse
of the speculation of 1887, were being felt. High taxes
had become an intolerable burden to much of the popu27. Hicks, op. cit., 116-117.
28. Ocala Banner, Dec. 5, 1890.
NATIONAL FARMERS' ALLIANCE CONVENTION
171
lation, especially that large proportion, farmers and
laborers, that lived constantly in the shadow of impending bankruptcy. Crop failures came with disheartening
frequency. When a bumper crop appeared it gave small
relief, for the price declined as the yield increased. Corn
sold for fifty cents a bushel on the Chicago market, but
the Kansas or Nebraska farmer was lucky to get as much
as fifteen or twenty cents a bushel. The railroads and
commission men pocketed the rest. 29 Stories of ten-cent
corn and corn-to-burn were common. It is little wonder
that the Alliancemen were determined to vote their adherents into office, hoping to alleviate these tragic
economic circumstances.
The St. Louis Demands, announced by the Southern
Alliance and Knights of Labor in December, 1889, 30
provided the keynote for the Ocala meeting in 1890. Polk,
in his opening talk, declared: “Let us stand unitedly and
unflinchingly by the great principles enunciated at our
meeting at St. Louis. In the light of our recent experience, the important work of discussing and elucidating
these principles must devolve upon us.” 31
An important plank in the St. Louis platform concerned financial reform. According to President Polk,
it was “. . . ignored by Congress, and even the discussion
of this plan was suppressed, notwithstanding the petitions of hundreds of thousands of our members for
financial relief in this direction.” 32
The financial reform plan, designed for the relief
of agriculture, was termed the “sub-treasury plan.” On
the last day of the St. Louis meeting, after the regular
demands of the Alliance were read and approved, a
report was received from the "Committee of the Monetary System.” This report urged “the free and unlimited coinage of silver or the issue of silver certificates
against an unlimited deposit of bullion.” The report
suggested:
29. Hicks, op. cit., 154.
30. National Economist, Dec. 21, 1889.
31. Dunning, op. cit., 148.
32. Idem.
172
THE FLORIDA HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
The system of using certain banks as United
States depositories be abolished, and in place of said
system, establish in every county in each of the
States that offers for sale during the one year
$500,000 worth of farm products . . . a sub-treasury
office, and it should be the duty of such sub-treasury
department to receive such agricultural products as
are offered for storage and make a careful examination of such products and class same as to quality
and give a certificate of the deposit . . . and that
United States legal-tender paper money equal to
eighty per cent of the local current value of the
products deposited has been advanced on same on
interest at the rate of one per cent per annum . . .
With this method in vogue the farmer, when his
produce was harvested . . . would secure four-fifths
of its value to supply his pressing necessity for
money. 33
Warmly debated in St. Louis the plan was finally
adopted. In the months that followed, Alliance newspapers and lecturers endorsed the plan in terms of glowing commendation. 34 Immediately after adjournment of
the St. Louis convention, bills embodying the subtreasury idea were drawn by Alliance leaders and were
presented to Congress. 35 Petitions and memorials, literally by the hundreds, demanded that Congress enact the
bill. However, the Congressional committees to which the
bills were referred, refused to report out a sub-treasury
measure of any kind, either favorably or unfavorably. 36
Obviously the severe defeat suffered by the majority
party in the election of 1890 failed to arouse Congress
to action.
The delegates to the Ocala meeting were determined
that immediate action should be taken. On the first day
of the convention, President Polk announced that “A
33. National Economist, Dec. 21, 1889.
34. Hicks, op cit., 189-190.
35. Congressiomal Record, 51st Cong., 1st Sess.
36. National Economist, May 3, 24 and June 7, 1890.
NATIONAL FARMERS' ALLIANCE CONVENTION
173
system of finance which recognizes and secures to every
citizen of this country an equitable, fair, and just right
to share its benefits, and which will furnish a volume of
circulating medium adequate to the legitimate demands
of the country, at a low rate of interest, is the greatest
and most urgent need of the times.” 37
The Ocala Convention backed these sentiments
wholeheartedly. Congressman Pickler, who had introduced the bill into the House of Representatives, spoke
to the group during the afternoon session of the third
day and declared that the “. . . subtreasury plan was
the best for the distribution of money yet proposed.” 38
Again, on the sixth day, the Committee on Demands
reported on Section 1:
We demand the abolition of national banks, and
that the government shall establish sub-treasuries,
or depositories, in the several States, which subtreasuries shall loan money to the people on approved security at a low rate of interest, not to
exceed two per cent per annum. 39
In the debate which followed, an attempt was made
to satisfy Northern critics who agreed that the subtreasury plan fitted the needs of the Southern cotton
grower, but who argued that it hardly was satisfactory
to their section of the country. To secure reluctant
Northern support of the plan, the Ocala delegates suggested that the government lend money on real estate.
The final measures voted upon demanded:
A. Abolition of national banks.
B. The government shall establish sub-treasuries
or depositories in the several States, which shall
loan money direct to the people at a low rate of
interest not to exceed two per cent per annum
on non-perishable farm products, and also upon
37. Dunning, op. cit., 149.
38. Ibid., 155.
39. Ibid., 163.
174
THE FLORIDA HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
real estate, with proper limitations upon the
quantity and amount of money.
C. The amount of the circulating medium be
speedily increased to not less than $50.00 per
capita. 40
These demands were carried by a vote of 79 to 10.
Illinois voted against the measures; Pennsylvania and
Colorado did not vote; and a split vote was recorded
for Mississippi, Missouri, and Tennessee. Davis of Kentucky introduced a resolution asking that the Ways and
Means Committee of the House report the sub-treasury
bill speedily and that it “. . . be enacted into law as
soon as possible, or some other measure that will carry
out these principles and meet the necessities of the
toiling masses.” This resolution was carried by a rising
vote. 41
Before it languished into death this sub-treasury
plan was to create fiery dissension throughout the
nation. Even the South, where it drew its main support,
was to finally divide on its merits. The sub-treasury was
denounced by the New York Times as “one of the wildest
and most fantastic projects ever seriously proposed by
sober man.” 42 Its opponents easily picked flaws in the
plans and many questioned its constitutionality. Formidable opposition existed in the Southern Alliance.
Wade Hampton of South Carolina branded the measure
as “so palpably wrong on its face as to make it absurd
to all who have the prosperity and welfare of the country
at heart.” 43 By January, 1893, the sub-treasury idea
had lost its appeal, and a few months later it could be
said that “The cry of the subtreasury cannot now be
heard even in the silence of the night.” 44
A great and pressing problem facing the Ocala Convention was that of a Third Party. Successes scored by
40.
41.
42.
43.
44.
Ibid., 164.
Ibid., 165.
New York Times, Dec. 12, 1890.
Hicks, op. cit., 201.
Ibid., 206.
NATIONAL FARMERS’ ALLIANCE CONVENTION
175
the farmers in the election of 1890 greatly stimulated the
agitation already under way for the organization of a
third party along national lines. The opportunity to air
the views of those favoring a new political organization
was presented at the Ocala meeting. The New York
Times reported that the chief work of many at the convention was to press for action looking in the direction
of a new party. 45
The Kansas delegates were the most active in formulating a party program. The Kansas State Alliance
had joined with the Southern group the year before and
now they made it their chief concern to pledge the whole
Alliance organization to the support of the new party
movement. However, the Southern Alliance in 1891 was
not prone to accept anything that would threaten their
one-party system, and were content to try and capture
control of the Democratic Party.
Macune, realizing the tenor of feeling in the South,
and hoping to promote harmony within the Alliance,
proposed a compromise. Although the North demanded
a new party, the Southerners in the Alliance would not
support such a proposal and Macune suggested that
action be postponed until 1892 - the time of the next
national convention. He proposed that delegates representing farm-labor organizations meet and draw up a
set of demands and suggest a plan of enforcing them.
Then Macune declared, “If the people by delegates
coming direct from them agree that a third party move
is necessary, it need not be feared.” 46 The Ocala convention, realizing that Macune’s plan offered a way out
of an embarrassing situation, adopted it. Thus, decision
was postponed until February, 1892. 47
Extremists among the third-party faction were not
satisfied with the action taken by the Ocala delegates.
As convention debate proceeded they argued vehemently
that the need for a new political party was immediate;
45. New York Times, Dec. 3, 1890.
46. Hicks, op. cit., 207.
47. Anna Rochester, The Populist Movement in the United States, (New
York, 1943), 61.
176
THE FLORIDA HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
organization could not be indefinitely postponed. Under
the leadership of the Kansas and Indiana delegations, a
call was issued for an organizing convention to meet in
Cincinnati the following February. Representatives were
invited from the Independent Party, People’s Party,
Union Labor Party, Union and Confederate soldiers’
organizations, the Northern and Southern Farmers’
Alliance, the Farmers’ Mutual Benefit Association, the
Citizens’Alliance, Knights of Labor, the Colored Farmers’Alliance, and all others who agreed to the St. Louis
demands of 1889. 48 A minority of Southern Alliance
members present in Ocala signed the call. 49
Of the many things discussed, argued, and debated
in Ocala, the sub-treasury plan and the action taken on
the proposed third party were the most important and
had the most far-reaching effects. However, there were
other problems suggested and debated. Reports of
various Alliance activities were delivered. For several
years there had been sporadic efforts at cooperative
buying and selling. Cooperative stores, elevators, and
gins were frequently undertaken by local Alliances. The
Farmers’ Mutual Benefit Association in Illinois attempted to pool grain for shipment directly to the central
markets. Cooperative fire, hail, and life insurance was
tried out by the Dakota Alliance; and in 1890 a National
Alliance Aid Association, operating on the Dakota plan,
was opened in Washington, D. C.
The progress of these, and the even more important
business agencies, was reported at Ocala. Under the
vigorous leadership of Macune, the Southern Alliance
planned to “organize the agriculturists of the cotton belt
for business purposes.” Macune argued that it was
necessary for all cotton growers to come into a “strong,
solid, secret, and binding organization,” welded together
for the express purpose of “breaking the power of
monopoly.’’ 50 Obviously, Southern Alliance leaders had
48. New York Times, Dec. 5, 1890.
49. Hicks. op. cit., 209.
50. Ibid., 133.
NATIONAL FARMERS’ ALLIANCE CONVENTION
177
no scruples about creating a farmers’ monopoly, which
would force buyers to pay the farmers a fair price.
Similarly, farmers, operating through an “agency,”
might refuse to purchase needed commodities except at
what they considered a fair price.
The first of the agencies was organized in Texas
and by August 1889 the National Economist reported
that a majority of the states had business agencies. 51
A State Business Agents Association was organized at
the St. Louis Convention to supervise and coordinate the
activities of the many agencies and exchanges. At the
Ocala meeting eighteen state agencies and exchanges
were represented.
The Ocala delegates directed their attention toward
organizing one large national agency to head state
agencies and exchanges. The secretary of the State
Business Agents Association attempted to arouse enthusiasm for the idea. Addressing the Ocala meeting,
he announced:
Our enemy cannot meet us successfully if we
stand united, but if every agent attempts to work
out his problem single handed and alone, each will
fall an easy prey to the powers of monopoly. I am
convinced that we have gone as far as we can as
individual agents. 52
Macune offered encouragement for the project; other
Alliance leaders definitely opposed it. They felt that
there was no point in establishing a national exchange,
until fuller cooperation between the various states exchanges should be attempted. The project was referred
to a committee for study and wider investigation. No
further steps were taken by the Southern Alliance toward
establishing such a national agency. 53
The Alliance delegates in Ocala were not as undecided on the transportation problem as they had been
51. National Economist, Aug. 10, 1889.
52. Proceedings of the Supreme Council of the National Farmers' Alliance and Industrial Union, 1890, 34-35.
53. Ibid., 49.
178
THE FLORIDA HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
in St. Louis. 54 The Ocala delegates went on record demanding government control and supervision over not
only transportation, but also communication facilities;
and government ownership if control did not remove
existing abuses. 55
There was a minimum of argument among the delegates when national banks were denounced and a demand
was made for their abolition. One of the prime grievances
of the American farmer stemmed from the banking law
of 1864. As a result, the total bank-note circulation tended
to decline. With this shrinkage came deflation, declining
prices for agricultural products, piling farm mortgages,
increasing property foreclosures, unemployment, insecurity, poverty. It was a matter of vital concern to
the American farmer and to the representatives at the
Ocala meeting. An inflexible currency boded no good for
their interests and they were determined that the source
of this condition should be abolished.
The famous Ocala Demands were adopted on the
last day of the Florida meeting. Later, when the Populist
Party evolved on America’s political horizon, the platform of this people’s party was based, to a large degree,
on these demands: 56
OCALA DEMANDS
1. A. We demand the abolition of national banks.
B. We demand that the government shall establish sub-treasuries or depositories in the
several states, which shall loan money direct
to the people at a low rate of interest, not to
exceed two percent per annum, on non-perishable farm products, and also upon real estate,
with proper limitations upon the quantity of
land and amount of money.
C. We demand that the amount of the circulating
54. Arnett, op. cit., 99.
55. Hicks, op. cit., 431. Roscoe C. Martin, The People’s Party in Texas,
A Study in Third Party Politics, (Austin, Texas, 1933), 43.
56. Hicks. op. cit., 430-431.
NATIONAL FARMERS’ ALLIANCE CONVENTION
2.
3.
4.
5.
179
medium be speedily increased to not less than
$50 per capita.
We demand that Congress shall pass such
laws as will effectually prevent the dealing in
futures of all agricultural and mechanical
productions; providing a stringent system of
procedure in trials that will secure the prompt
conviction, and imposing such penalties as
shall secure the most perfect compliance with
the law.
We condemn the silver bill recently passed by
Congress, and demand in lieu thereof the free
and unlimited coinage of silver.
We demand the passage of laws prohibiting
alien ownership of land, and that Congress
take prompt action to devise some plan to
obtain all lands now owned by aliens and
foreign syndicates; and that all lands now
held by railroads and other corporations in
excess of such as is actually used and needed
by them be reclaimed by the government and
held for actual settlers only.
Believing in the doctrine of equal rights to all
and special privileges to none, we demandA. That our national legislation shall be so
framed in the future as not to build up one
industry at the expense of another.
B. We further demand a removal of the existing
heavy tariff tax from the necessities of life,
that the poor of our land must have.
C. We further demand a just and equitable
system of graduated tax on incomes.
D. We believe that the money of the country
should be kept as much as possible in the
hands of the people, and hence we demand
that all national and state revenues shall be
limited to the necessary expenses of the government economically and honestly administered.
180
6.
7.
THE FLORIDA HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
We demand the most, rigid, honest and just
state and national control and supervision of
the means of public communication and transportation, and if this control and supervision
does not remove the abuse now existing, we
demand the government ownership of such
means of communication and transportation.
We demand that the Congress of the United
States submit an amendment to the Constitution providing for the election of United
States Senators by direct vote of the people
of each State.
After electing officers for the new year, 57 President
Polk adjourned the Ocala meeting. Enthusiastic cheers
and applause endorsed his expressions of gratitude to
Ocala’s city officials and citizens for their generous
hospitality. One delegate announced that as far as he
was concerned Ocala was the “Chicago of Florida.” 58
Florida’s hospitality had not been completed. Before
leaving Ocala, delegates and their families were given
boxes of oranges and lemons. A tour of the state began
on December 6 and for two weeks the delegates sailed
up the Ocklawaha river, ate barbecue at Homossassa,
Bartow and St. Cloud, fished in the Gulf and were entertained with dinners and receptions in Tampa, Orlando, Titusville, St. Augustine, Tallahassee and Jacksonville. 59
Many historians point to the Ocala meeting as an
integral step in the growth of the Populist Party movement. Certainly the Ocala Demands helped to form the
structure of the party’s political philosophy. The Ocala
convention debated economic and political problems
57. Polk was reelected president; Ben H. Clover, Kansas, was elected
vice-president; J. H. Turner, Georgia, secretary; J. F. Willetts,
Kansas, national lecturer; J. F. Tillman, Tennessee, member of
executive board; five delegates were elected to confer with labor
organizations. Reported in Ocala Banner, Dec. 12, 1890.
58. Weekly Floridian, Dec. 17, 1890.
59. An itinerary of the trip was published in the Ocala Banner, Dec. 5,
1890.
NATIONAL FARMERS’ ALLIANCE CONVENTION
181
which were not particularly new to the country. The
grievances of the farmers were many. Their complaints
for years had been directed against the railroads, trusts,
the middlemen, bankers and the government’s muddled
currency. In the Ocala meeting hall, they had raised their
restless and discontented voices. The echoes would resound for many years, affecting and stimulating political,
economic and social thought and activity in the United
States.
NEGRO SLAVERY IN FLORIDA
by EDWIN L. WILLIAMS JR.
Part II
As the plantation regime expanded in territorial
Florida and the Negro population became more numerous it became necessary that the slave system should
be supported by statutory law. The purpose of the law
was primarily to control the slave through a strict
regulation of the system, and only incidentally to give
him protection from ill usage. In 1828 the Legislative
Council laid the legal basis for future legislation concerning Negro slaves by the passage of an act which
stated that “slaves shall be deemed, held, and taken as
personal property for every purpose whatever." 1 This
act placed the Negro slave in a separate legal category
from the white population, and by subsequent legislation
the free Negro was also set apart legally from the white
population. In the same year the Legislative Council
passed “An Act Relating to Crimes, and Misdemeanors
Committed by Slaves, Free Negroes and Mulattoes”
which was in itself a definitive slave code. 2 As a result
of this and subsequent legislation enacted by the Legislative Council, Florida, by the time she became a state,
had a slave code and a patrol system closely resembling
those of the older Southern states. 3 This resemblance
was a logical development, as the Florida code dealt with
similar problems and had the same objectives as those
of the older slave states, and it was framed by legislators
the great majority of whom were natives of Georgia,
South Carolina, North Carolina, Alabama, Virginia and
other slave states.
The St. Joseph constitution under which Florida
entered the Union reflected the legal position to which
1. John P. Duval, Compilation of the Public Acts of the Legislative
Council of the Territory of Florida Passed Prior to 1840, Tallahassee, 1839, 204.
2. Ibid., 216-217.
3. For further details see Thelma Bates, “The Legal Status of the
Negro in Florida.” Florida Historical Quarterly, VI (January,
1928), 161-168.
NEGRO SLAVERY IN FLORIDA
183
the slave and the free Negro had already been assigned
by Florida law. The provisions of this constitution in
regard to slavery were very stringent and aroused such
opposition on the part of the anti-slavery elements in
Congress as to almost prevent Florida’s admission into
the Union in 1845. 4 Article XVI not only encouraged the
growth of slavery by forbidding legislative interference
with the importation of slaves into Florida from the
other states and territories (except slaves who had been
convicted of crime), it also specifically forbade the
General Assembly to pass laws providing for the emancipation of slaves and gave it the power to prevent the
entrance of free Negroes into Florida. 5
The slave and the free Negro were not only the
subject of special legislation insofar as criminal law
was concerned, they were also in a special tax category.
By the state revenue act of 1845 a tax of fifty cents a
head was levied on each slave to be paid by his owner as
on any other property, and every free man of color between the ages of 21 and 60 was to pay an annual tax
of three dollars a head (as compared to a tax of fifty
cents a head on each white man.) 6
As the controversy between the slave states and the
free states grew increasingly bitter and the violence of
the abolitionist attacks on slavery increased, there was
a tightening up of the laws concerning slavery in all the
Southern states. From the late forties until secession the
slave code in Florida became stricter and more severe
and the laws and regulations dealing with free Negroes
became more and more stringent. 7 So rigorous did the
regulation of free Negroes become that many a free
Congressional Globe, XIV, 28th Congress, 2nd Session, Journal of
the House, 273-283.
Journal of the Constitutional Convention, St. Joseph, 1838, Appendix 18.
Leslie A. Thompson, A Manual or Digest of the Statute Law of the
State of Florida, of a General and Public Character, In Force at
the End of the Second Session of the General Assembly of the State,
On the Sixth Day of January, 1847, Boston, 1847, 87.
Thelma Bates, op. cit., 168-174. See this article for an excellent discussion of the details of Florida legislation regarding slaves and
free Negroes in the ante-bellum period.
184
T HE F LORIDA H ISTORICAL Q UARTERLY
Negro must have felt that he would be better off as a
slave under a kind master. The records of the Escambia
County Circuit Court show two voluntary petitions of
free Negroes asking to go into slavery, these Negroes
having acted under the permissive act of 1858 which gave
free Negroes in Florida the doubtful privilege of selecting their own masters and becoming slaves by filing a
petition with the County Circuit Court for the decision
of the probate judge. 8 How many free Negroes in other
counties took advantage of this act is hard to say, but
it is likely that others decided that slavery with security
was more desirable than freedom with harassment and
an uncertain status. The Pensacola Gazette for April 4,
1857 records an exodus of 35 free colored persons from
Pensacola for Tampico, Mexico. 9 It is no wonder that
the number of free Negroes in Florida declined from 932
in 1850 to 804 in 1855 and had only risen again to 932
in 1860. Evidently the free Negro was not wanted in
Florida by the planter oligarchy which controlled the
state. In Florida, as elsewhere in the South, we find
borne out the truth of Francis Butler Simpkins’s remark
that the free Negroes were the pariahs of Southern
society. 10
The Florida slave code not only regulated the Negro
himself but it also regulated the relationship between
the Negro and the white with the purpose of keeping
the Negro under control and of maintaining the superior
status of the whites. Under Florida law whites were
forbidden to sell liquor to Negroes, to game with them
or to intermarry with them. 11 Any interference with
slaves or slavery by persons from without the state was,
of course, a matter of great concern, and Florida laws
discouraged abolitionist activities by such penalties as a
8. Ruth B. Barr and Modeste Hargis, “The Voluntary Exile of Free
Negroes of Pensacola,” Florida Historical Quarterly, XVII (July,
1938), 7 ; Florida Acts, 1858-1859, 13.
9. Barr and Hargis, op. cit., 3.
10. Francis Butler Simpkins, The South, Old and New, 1947, 61.
11. Katherine Chatham, “Plantation Slavery in Middle Florida,” Unpublished Master’s Thesis, University of North Carolina, Chapel
Hill, North Carolina, 1938, 78.
N EGRO S LAVERY
IN
F LORIDA
185
fine of up to $1,000 for enticing a slave or aiding him to
run away, confinement in the pillory, branding in the
hand with the letters S.S., and imprisonment up to six
months. The law also stated that a person guilty of
stealing a slave was liable to the death penalty. 12
The most famous case to be tried in Florida under
this law was that of Jonathan Walker, New Englander
of abolitionist sympathies, who was caught in 1844 while
trying to ferry 7 runaway slaves from Pensacola to the
Bahamas in an open boat. He and his runaways were
apprehended off Cape Florida by a Key West wrecker.
Walker was lodged in a Key West jail for three days,
then moved to the military barracks because of fear of
mob violence. Thence he was sent to Pensacola for trial.
Walker was tried, convicted, and sentenced to stand in
the pillory, to be branded on the hand with the letters
S.S. (slave stealer), to pay $300 fine and to serve a term
of imprisonment for each slave he assisted to flee; also
he was to pay the cost of imprisonment and to remain
committed to jail until his fines were paid. Walker’s
abolitionist friends in the North paid his fines and got
him out of jail. When he returned to the North he was
lionized by the abolitionists and was the recipient of
many demonstrations of approval. John Greenleaf Whittier wrote a poem in his honor, “The Branded Hand,”
and Owen Lovejoy, brother of the murdered abolitionist
Elijah Lovejoy, attended a large reception given for
Walker in Providence, Rhode Island. 13
The St. Augustine News carried a notice about Jon
athan Walker’s imprisonment as a slave stealer and
intimated that his activities were aided and abetted by
the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society in co12. Thompson, A Manual of the Statute Law, 492.
13. Wilbur H. Siebert, The Underground Railroad From Slavery to
Freedom, New York and London, 1899, 170-171; see also Jonathan
Walker, The Branded Hand, Trial and Imprisonment of Jonathan
Walker, at Pensacola, Florida, for Aiding Slaves to Escape from
Bondage, with an Appendix Containing a Sketch of His Life, Boston,
1845, 9-33. The Branded Hand is a lurid account written by Walker
himself describing his abolitionist work, his unsuccessful attempt
to smuggle slaves to the Bahamas, and his capture and experiences
in jail.
186
THE FLORIDA HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
operation with the Massachusetts authorities. The News
cited as evidence a letter of sympathy from the British
Society which was found on Walker’s person. 14 The
Pensacola Gazette remarked bitterly that this slave
stealer, a native of Massachusetts, was made a martyr
and hero when he returned home and that public meetings
were held in the North at which collections were taken
up for Walker and his family. 15 This event stirred up
anti-slavery feeling in the North on one hand; on the
other it aroused bitter feeling in Florida against the
abolitionists and their Northern supporters.
The official attitude toward slave stealers in Florida
was, as might be expected, severe and unrelenting. In
answer to a request for the pardon of a certain James
McNabb, Governor Moseley wrote to the sheriff of St.
Johns county that it would be inconsistent with his conviction of duty to pardon McNabb, who was convicted
of two offenses “of the most heinous character,” “assault with intent to kill” and “aiding and assisting a
runaway slave.” The requested pardon was refused. 16
There were other incidents of abolitionist incursions
into Florida. In 1851 Solon Robinson from New York,
editor of an agricultural magazine, came to visit Edward
Bradford’s plantation near Tallahassee. He had a letter
of introduction and was extended gracious hospitality
as a guest at Pine Hill. Robinson also visited other
plantations in the vicinity. Then one day his hosts discovered that Robinson was holding abolitionist meetings
in their slaves’quarters and inciting the Negroes to insurbordination and flight. The planters promptly packed
him off to St. Marks and set him aboard a ship bound
for a Northern port. 17 In 1854 a fugutive slave escaped
from Jacksonville to Boston as a stowaway on the brig
Cameo out of Augusta, Maine. This slave was rescued
14. St. Augustine News, March 8, 1845.
15. Pensacola Gazette, September 6, 1845.
16. Governor’s Letters Sent, 1845-1857, (Letterbook at Florida State
Library, Tallahassee, Florida), Letter from Governor William D.
Moseley to Sheriff of St. Johns County, dated August 6, 1845, 5.
17. Susan Bradford Eppes, Through Some Eventful Years, Macon, 1926,
33-41.
N EGRO S LAVERY
IN
F LORIDA
187
from the danger of being sent back to Florida through
the activity of Captain Ambrose Bearse, agent of the
Boston Vigilance Committee. 18 There were, however,
relatively few successful escapes made by slaves, hardly
enough to justify the alarm with which Florida newspapers of the ante-bellum period habitually regarded
the activities of the abolitionists. The United States
census returns show that only 18 fugitive slaves (.0457
per cent) escaped from Florida in 1850, and only 11
(.0177 per cent or one out of 5,613) in 1860. There were
more Florida Negroes freed from slavery by manumission than by escape during these years, 22 being
manumitted in 1850 and 17 in 1860; 19 this in spite of the
fact that Florida law made the manumission of slaves
very difficult.
In dealing with the slave in Florida we must think
of him primarily as a plantation Negro because the great
majority of the Negro slaves were to be found in the
plantation counties. In 1845 a concentration of 65 per
cent of the state slave population was to be found in
the five cotton producing plantation counties of Jackson,
Gadsden, Leon, Jefferson and Madison. 20 By 1860 when
the “black arc” or plantation area had extended into
East Florida to include Alachua and Marion counties,
39,795 of the state’s 61,745 slaves were living in the
plantation counties, or approximately 64.4 per cent of
the state’s slave population, 21 and undoubtedly a large
proportion of the slaves in the counties outside the
“black arc” were also employed on plantations. Most
of those who were not employed on plantations were on
farms. Some were employed in the various forest industries like getting out timber, saw milling and the
turpentine industry. Of the 61,745 slaves in Florida in
1860 only about 6,872 lived in the towns, 22 and it is likely
18. Siebert, The Underground Railroad, 81.
19. U. S. Eighth Census, 1860: Mortality and Miscellaneous Statutes,
388.
20. Dorothy Dodd, “Florida’s Population in 1845,” Florida Historical
Quarterly, XXIV, (July, 1945), 29.
21. Eighth Census, 1860: Population, 54.
22. Idem.
188
T HE F LORIDA H ISTORICAL Q UARTERLY
that a great many of these had spent a good part of
their lives on the farm or plantation. The slavery system
and, as we have already observed, the slave code, were
framed primarily with the plantation Negro in mind.
The life of the slave on a big plantation was highly
regimented. He generally worked at specific tasks from
morning to night under the direction of an overseer and
drivers or gang bosses. His activities were all under
careful control and supervision. The master enjoyed
almost absolute authority over him and had the backing
of the law to exercise control. The slave could be bought
and sold like any other property. But to compensate in
some measure for his lack of freedom he had a security
which was rarely the lot of the free white worker at
that time and certainly not of the free Negro. He received the necessities of life whether times were good
or bad. The intent of the laws was to protect him from
cruel and unusual punishments by the master or over23
seer, and even forbade the master to make him perform
any labor but the “ordinary household business of daily
24
necessity’’ on Sunday.
The treatment of slaves on the plantation varied
widely from good to bad even as the characters of the
masters varied. It is highly unlikely that they were ever
as badly treated as the enemies of slavery in the North
said they were; the concern of the owner for the preservation of valuable property would act as a check on
excessive brutality or neglect. When he grew too old to
work his master provided for him, and when ill the
master procured medical attention for him and paid the
doctor. Christian teachings and the idea of noblesse
oblige adhered to by the best planters tended to produce
a plantation regime which was on one side characterized
by a kind but firm regulation of his “people” by the
master and on the other by a sincere and confiding
affection for the master on the part of the slaves.
23. Thompson, A Manual of Statute Law, 499.
24. Florida Acts (1848), 69-70 ; Duval, Compilation of the Public Acts
of the Territory of Florida, 223.
N EGRO S LAVERY
IN
F LORIDA
189
Such a planter was Dr. Edward Bradford of Pine
Hill with his plantation holdings of some ten thousand
acres and his approximately 300 Negro slaves. At Pine
Hill the “great house” or master’s mansion was located
on the crest of a hill, surrounded by spacious grounds
planted with flowering shrubs, cedars of Lebanon, rose
hedges, flowers, and with such native trees as oak, dogwood, hickory and pine, with a circular drive leading
from the house to the public road. Through a side gate
in the white fence surrounding the mansion a road led
to the quarters where the house servants lived. Going
past these the road led by a saw mill, a shingle mill and
a grist mill, the blacksmith shop, the wheel-wright’s shop,
a carpenter shop, a cooper’s shop, a brick yard and a
kiln. Beyond these on an eminence called “Gopher Hill”
were a hundred neat white-washed frame houses with
brick chimneys and surrounded by shade trees and
gardens. These were the houses for the plantation
hands. 25
As Pine Hill was a large self-sufficient plantation
its labor force included beside the house servants and
the field or plantation hands a blacksmith, two wheelwrights, three carpenters, three coopers and other craftsmen. At the mills Dr. Bradford hired four white men;
an engineer, a miller, a sawyer, and a bookkeeper. He
also employed a white overseer to carry out his plans
for work and sanitation on the plantation. 26 Among the
house servants were the butler, the cook and her helpers,
the house maids, the laundry maids, the keeper of the
day nursery for the slave children, the housekeeper, the
houseboys, the seamstresses, the gardener, etc.; in all
thirty house servants. There were four slave foremen to
supervise the field hands; there were also the team
25. Susan Bradford Eppes, The Negro of the Old, South, Chicago, 1925,
103-105. These reminiscences of Mrs. Eppes may have been somewhat colored by the passage of the years, but in the main give an
accurate description of the slave regime on one of the better plantations.
26. Ibid., 105-106.
190
THE FLORIDA HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
drivers, the shepherd, the cattle drivers and other
miscellaneous servants. 27
The Bradfords were genuinely concerned with both
the spiritual and the physical welfare of their slaves. A
minister of the Gospel was employed to preach to the
Negroes every other Sunday and on alternate Sundays
they had a preacher of their own race. Their physical
welfare was well looked after also. They had good food
in variety and abundance, their cabins were well ventilated and comfortable and were kept well whitewashed.
All who wanted them had gardens and were furnished
with free seed. A first class physician was employed by
the year to look after their health.
There were rules and restrictions, most of them
rigidly enforced. One was that each Negro must bathe
and don clean clothes at least twice a week. Regular
inspections were held to see that this rule was obeyed.
The rules were made as few as possible, but they were
supposed to be strictly enforced. Any infractions were
to be laid before the master and his was the decision as
to punishment. Even then a Negro on the Bradford plantation had a final court of appeal, the mistress. Justice
was always tempered with mercy. 28
The life of the slave at Pine Hill was not all work.
Saturday afternoon was a holiday for every slave mother
with a family. These mothers had to do no sewing for
their families, this was done by a corps of seamstresses
under the supervision of the mistress of the plantation.
Christmas was the great holiday when all the hands took
the whole week off. On Christmas Day gifts were distributed to all by the master and mistress and for those
who wanted it there was the traditional dram of whiskey,
sugar and hot water. Only second to Christmas was the
Fourth of July when a big barbecue was given for the
Negroes. Cane grinding time, hog killings and corn
shuckings were other occasions of festival for the
slaves. 29
27. Ibid., 2-82.
28. Ibid., 3-90.
29. Ibid., 5-6.
N EGRO S LAVERY
IN
F LORIDA
191
Not all planters were as careful in matters of
clothing, cleanliness and diet as the master of Pine Hill.
Not all planters were as concerned with the welfare of
their Negroes as the Bradfords. Especially was this true
in cases where plantations had absentee owners and the
complete supervision was entrusted to hired overseers.
A good example of this is to be seen in the records of
El Destino and Chemonie plantations. These plantations,
belonging to George Noble Jones of Savannah, lay partly
in Leon county and partly in Jefferson county. El Destino covered 6,782 acres, Chemonie was smaller, having
only 1,800 acres. 30 A tax list in 1865 shows 143 slaves on
the El Destino plantation, and a list of slaves and their
ages made out by Jones shows about 85 slaves on the
Chemonie plantation in 1855. 31 As Jones had a share in
a large plantation in Jefferson county, Georgia (a larger
establishment than either El Destino or Chemonie), and
also owned valuable property in Savannah and a cottage
at Newport, Rhode Island, he never lived in Florida
except for periodic visits until after 1865. In 1856 he
took his family to Switzerland for a sojourn. 32 Consequently practically the whole management of his Florida
plantations devolved on his overseers whose occupation
was a varied and many-sided one. Jones’s overseers had
to be capable farm managers and also to perform some
of the duties, of a doctor, preacher, judge, jury and
executioner.
While the relations between master and slaves seem
to have been excellent there were occasional disciplinary
troubles. One overseer at Chemonie, George Evans, maintained a concubine among the female slaves and had four
mulatto children by her. The slaves were dissatisfied
with his management, one even threatening his life. Slave
complaints against Evans caused Jones to censure him
and he quit. Another overseer, D. N. Moxley, who came
30 Chatham, op. cit., 12.
31. Florida Plantation Records from the Papers of George Noble Jones,
edited by Ulrich Bonnell Phillips and James David Glunt, St. Louis,
1927, 511-512, 561-562.
32. Ibid., 20-21.
192
THE FLORIDA HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
to El Destino in 1853, was too severe in his punishment
and flogging of the slaves and would have been brained
with an axe by a rebellious slave if a foreman had not
intervened. There was also trouble with slaves going to
town at Tallahassee and getting put in jail. 33
There does not seem to have been as much attention
paid to the religious welfare of the slaves on El Destino
and Chemonie as at Pine Hill. The Jones slaves had
only three days off on Christmas. They were occasionally
given the whole or part of Saturday off and generally
had their leisure on Sundays. Their medical care does
not seem to have been as good as that at Pine Hill. Most
of the ailments of the slaves were treated by the overseer
himself with home remedies. There is no record of an
annual contract with a physician to look after the
slaves. 34 Doctors’ visits were surprisingly few at Chemonie. In 1855, for instance, only 18 calls were made at
a cost of $43. 35 Yet on the whole, the Negroes at El
Destino and Chemonie seemed to remain attached to
their master despite the evils of absentee ownership and
most of them seem to have stayed on the plantation after
1865 when the collapse of the Confederacy brought them
freedom. 36
The slaves in a general farming region were less
likely to suffer from the evils of absentee ownership and
the whims of an overseer whose main interest was getting
a big cotton crop than were the plantation slaves. They
were not over-worked and were generally fed and clothed
from the same storehouse as their master. In Walton
county, a region of thrifty small farmers, the slaves went
to church with their master, sitting in the special galleries provided for them, and had weekly prayer meetings in their quarters. There seem to have been few cases
of runaway slaves. The slave on the small farm had a
feeling of family solidarity with his white people which
33.
34.
35.
36.
Ibid.,
Ibid.,
Ibid.,
Ibid.,
24-27.
29-36.
574.
36-37.
NEGRO SLAVERY IN FLORIDA
193
made for good relations and little disciplinary trouble. 37
Also the slave owned by a small farmer was less likely
to live the highly regimented life of the plantation hand.
The former worked alongside his master or under direct
supervision at a variety of tasks, the latter worked in
gangs under the direction of a slave foreman or an
overseer.
Prince Achille Murat, exiled nephew of the great
Napoleon and Florida planter, said: “On the larger
plantations, where some hundreds of Negroes are collected together, a discipline and police regulations more
or less severe are necessary, without which all would
soon be destroyed or stolen.” 38 Murat owned a plantation near Tallahassee which he named “Lipona.” It
consisted of 1,060 acres of land and was operated with a
labor force of 108 slaves. 39 A planter himself and the
friend and neighbor of many of the great planters of
Leon county, Murat had ample opportunity to study the
plantation system, and one of the best contemporary
descriptions of life on a Florida plantation and the dayto-day routine of the plantation slave is to be found in
America and the Americans, his best known literary
work. In this account Murat says: “A well regulated
plantation is truly a most interesting spectacle; all . . .
is governed in the most perfect order. Each Negro has
a house, and the houses are generally built in regular
lines; he has his own poultry and pigs ; cultivates his
vegetables, and sells them at the market. At sun-rise the
sound of the horn calls him to labor, while each has his
allotted task in proportion to his physical strength. In
general the task is finished between three and four o’clock in the afternoon, allowing him ample time for
37. John L. McKinnon, History of Walton County, Atlanta, 1911, 164-171.
38. Achille Murat, America and the Americans, translated from the
French by Henry J. Bradfield, Buffalo, 1851, 79.
39. Alfred Jackson Hanna, A Prince in their Midst, Norman, Oklahoma,
1946, 216. Murat had unfortunately mortgaged this property for the
payment of two notes to the Union Bank and lost it in 1839 when
he could no longer meet his obligations. He and his wife moved to
a smaller plantation, “Econchatti,” where he was residing at the
time of his death in 1847. Ibid., 216, 231.
194
THE FLORIDA HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
dinner about noon. The task over, no further service is
required of him ; he either cultivates his garden, hires
himself to his master for extra labor, or takes a stroll
to visit his wife or mistress on some adjoining plantation. On Sundays he attires himself in his holiday suit
and goes to receive his weekly allowances (food ration),
and employs the remainder of the day as it may please
him. The duty of the manager is to give each his morning
task, and in the evening to see that it is properly done;
while the proprietor mounts his horse, makes a tour in
the plantation and gives the necessary orders. All these
are performed with the regularity of regimental duty;
and I myself have seen six months pass without one word
of censure being called for. Sometimes, however, it
happens there occur disputes and thefts requiring punishment. At Christmas the Negroes have three days to
themselves. Twice a year they have the necessaries
served out to them, for clothing, etc., which they make
up agreeably to their own taste.” 40 From this account
it is evident that the regimentation of the plantation
hands’ life had its compensations and alleviations. Of
the house servants Murat said: “Those residing in the
Great House . . . are treated in the same manner as the
domestic servants in Europe. Generally they are born
and bred up in the family, of which they consider themselves a part and to which they become much attached,
and are very faithful.” 41
In addition to the field hands and house servants
Murat mentioned a third class of slaves who were hired
out by their masters to others or were permitted to hire
themselves out on condition of paying an annual stipend
to the master. Among this group were many workmen
42
Slaves
such as carpenters, blacksmiths, tailors, etc.
were hired out by their masters to other planters, to
people in the towns, to the railroads or to sawmills,
turpentine stills and other industries needing common
40. Murat, op cit., 80-81.
41. Ibid., 81.
42. Idem.
N EGRO S LAVERY
IN
F LORIDA
195
labor. Among the records of Dr. Bradford’s estate is
an item of $1,125 for the hire of ten slaves in 1858 at
wages ranging from $10 for a boy to $190 for a man.
The employers of these slaves had to take care of them
as they were legally responsible to the owners for damages in case of injury or death resulted from the hirer’s
negligence. 43 The least regimented of all the slaves and
those who enjoyed the most freedom of action were those
fortunate Negroes whose masters permitted them to hire
their own time. They could hire out to work for anyone
they pleased and work when they pleased just as long
as they paid the annual stipend to their masters. In fact
this freedom from control of the slaves who hired their
own time was so contrary to the spirit and intent of the
slave code that a law was passed in 1856 forbidding that
slaves should be permitted to follow this practice. 44 It
is likely, though, that little attention was paid to the
observation or enforcement of this law. 45
Oliver D. Kinsman, division engineer for the Florida
Railroad from 1858 to 1861, stated that the Negro labor
used in the construction of that railroad consisted mostly
of slaves hired from Virginia and North Carolina
masters. These Negroes had their rights, too, according
to Kinsman. They could not be taken from their homes
until January 2 or after, and must be returned on or
before December 24. The railroad Negroes were permitted to work for themselves and get paid for it after
they had done their regular allotment of work for the
day. Kinsman said he saw some, though not much, punishment inflicted on these Negroes, generally for neglect
to complete allotted work. The punishment was whipping
with a long cowhide whip with the culprit’s shirt on or
off according to the severity desired. Sometimes a more
terrible weapon was used - a big hardwood paddle
43. Chatham, op. cit., 80-81.
44. Florida Acts, 1856, 24-25.
45. Frederic Bancroft, Slave-Trading in the Old South, Baltimore, 1931,
162. According to Bancroft most Southern states had laws forbidding the practice of permitting slaves to hire their own time, but
he states that these laws were generally ignored and prosecutions
for violation were rare.
196
T HE F LORIDA H ISTORICAL Q UARTERLY
pierced with augur holes and administered on the bare
skin of the culprit as he bent over a log. A half dozen
strokes of this paddle was cruel punishment. Permanent
injury to these Negroes was generally prevented, however, by a clause in the hiring contract which required
that a slave be returned to his master as sound as when
taken away, barring the unavoidable. 46
Northerners and foreign observers seem to have had
rather widely varied reactions to the institution of
slavery as it functioned in ante-bellum Florida. Bishop
Henry Benjamin Whipple from Minnesota, a visitor in
Florida in 1843 and later, felt that the exaggerated
abolitionist stories of slavery existed only in imagination
and that the efforts of the abolitionists had served only
to injure the slave, and to destroy good feeling between
the sections. He recognized the evil of slavery but said
that if it were ever abolished it must be done gradually
and with the consent of the slaveholders. The good bishop
found the treatment of slaves on the Florida plantations
he visited to be firm and kind and in general thought
the Negroes were happy in their state of servitude. At
the same time he felt that the energies of the Floridians
were stifled and their progress impeded by the incubus
47
of slavery. Another Northern visitor who writes of
slavery in ante-bellum Florida in the forties and early
fifties had a great deal to say about the happiness of
the Negro slaves he encountered on his visits to the
plantations on the St. Johns and about the excellence of
the institution of slavery as a great missionary influence
to Christianize the Negro, and as a way of life which
brought him true contentment. 48 One feels that the
author of this lavish eulogy of slavery must have felt
doubtful of the reception his work would receive in his
own section of the country as he simply signed it “By a
46. Oliver Dorrance Kinsman, A Loyal Man in Florida, 1858-1861. A
paper read to a meeting of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion
of the United States, Washington, D. C., May 4, 1910, 5-6.
47. Bishop Whipple’s Southern Diary, 1843-1844, edited by Lester B.
Shippee, Minneapolis, 1937, 30-71.
48. By a Northern Man, The Planter: or, Thirteen Years in the South,
Philadelphia, 1853, 70-89.
I
N EGRO S LAVERY
IN
F LORIDA
197
Northern Man.’’ Certainly he must have looked at the
“peculiar institution” through rose-tinted spectacles.
Oliver Kinsman, the aforementioned engineer for the
Florida Railroad, was a native of Maine (he served with
Sherman’s army), but he seems to have been a fair and
unprejudiced observer of slavery as may be seen by his
observations on the treatment of the slaves hired by the
railroad. His comment on the general condition of the
slaves in Florida was that “. . . they seemed to be contented. They were well worked, but also well cared
for.” 49 John Francis Tenney, a Northerner who brought
his family to Florida in 1859 and went into the logging
business near Picolata, said of slavery as he saw it in
Florida: "As far as our observation and experience went
the institution of slavery was far from being the ‘horror
of horrors’ that the people of the free states imagined
it to be.” 50 He stated that he never saw nor heard of
the practice of any of the great cruelties which were
reported in the North and said that the very nature of
the institution made unusual severity impossible as a
Negro slave represented property worth anywhere from
one hundred to two thousand dollars, and was treated
accordingly as a valuable asset. Although corporal punishment for adults was occasionally necessary it was rare
that any severe punishment was administered. According
to Tenney there was a genuine affection existing between
master and slave in thousands of cases. 51 Tenney’s main
criticism of slavery was that every industry was made
subservient to slavery with the result that the advance
of the people (the common man) was retarded. According
to him it created two distinct social classes, the wealthy
and the very poor. The poor were in the majority, and
being too proud to labor (as labor carried the stigma of
slavery) they were unable to amass the means to educate
their children or to raise their standard of living. The
wealthy (the slave-owning class) on the other hand had
49. Kinsman, op. cit., 5.
50. John Francis Tenney, Slavery, Secession and Success, The Memoirs
of a Florida Pioneer, San Antonio, 1934, 6.
51. Ibid., 5-8.
198
THE FLORIDA HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
every luxury and comfort and led an ideal life of ease. 52
Here Tenney fell into the error of many other observers
of the Southern scene who assumed that there were just
two classes of white people in the slave states, the
wealthy slave-owners and the poor whites. He overlooked
the existence of a large class of yeoman farmers who
were hard-working, thrifty and self-respecting. Neither
did all the slave-owners have every comfort and luxury;
many of the slave-owners were farmers, or backwoods
planters who lived in a very simple (if not crude) style
and enjoyed few luxuries. While the average plantation
family may have been well-to-do, the many responsibilities connected with the proper running of a plantation
and the management of Negroes meant that most
planters and their wives led busy lives.
James Stirling, the English traveler, who visited
Florida in 1857 on his tour of the slave states, was
highly critical of slavery. He condemned Florida as a
hopelessly backward state whose lack of progress was
due partly to its unfortunate geographical location and
poor soils and partly to the institution of slavery. He,
too, said that in Florida “as in all the slave states more
or less” there were but two classes, the rich planters
and the poor whites. Stirling was evidently a superficial
observer and his opinions were based on insufficient
evidence as he confined his investigation of Florida to
St. Augustine and the valley of the St. Johns, not visiting the plantation counties of the interior which constituted the most wealthy and populous section of the
state. 53 Neither did Stirling give Florida credit for the
very real progress it had made in population growth and
in economic development since it had become a state.
Another English traveler who visited Florida in the
fifties was the Honorable Amelia M. Murray. Miss
Murray visited Jacksonville, Palatka, St. Augustine,
Ocala, and Silver Springs. The English lady was much
52. Ibid., 9.
53. James Stirling, Letters from the Slave States, London, 1857, 213-227.
Stirling even attributed the backwardness of railroad development
in Florida to the use of Negro slaves in building the railroads, 225.
NEGRO SLAVERY IN FLORIDA
199
more charitable than her compatriot in her remarks on
the institution of slavery as she observed it in Florida.
She said of the attacks on slavery: “No one can live
long in this country without being convinced of the want
of real information and the injudicious tendency of
Uncle Tom.” Miss Murray felt that those who sincerely
desired to advance the cause of the Negro should remain
for some months in the South and try to get a real understanding of the slave system and how it works. 54 In
fact she was of the general opinion that the institution
of slavery served as a great school of Christianity and
civilization for the Negro and felt that he was much
better off under slavery that he was in a state of
freedom. 55
Floridians of this period were ardent defenders of
the institution of slavery. Ante-bellum Florida produced
no advocates of emancipation like the Grimke sisters of
South Carolina or James G. Birney of Kentucky. If
any citizens of Northern birth disapproved of slavery
they were discreet and said little about it. As we have
seen, Zephaniah Kingsley was one of the first Floridians
to make a literary defense of slavery. Another Floridian
who early took up his pen in defense of the “peculiar
institution” was Achille Murat, planter and lawyer of
territorial Florida whose description of slavery on a
Florida plantation has already been quoted. Murat scored
the attacks of the abolitionists on slavery as gross and
absurd calumnies largely inspired by Great Britain
because of that country’s jealousy of the United States.
He denied that slavery was always an evil, saying that
in certain periods of a nation’s existence it was a positive
good. Working from this premise Murat argued that in
the South with a climate which made it fatal for unacclimated white men to labor in the open field, and with
a small proportion of good soil, the use of Negro labor
to open up and develop the country was an absolute
54. Honorable Amelia M. Murray, Letters from the United States, Cuba,
and Canada, New York, 1856, 229-234.
55. Ibid., passim.
200
THE FLORIDA HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
necessity until the whites became acclimated; hence
slavery was a good institution in the South. He denied
the charges of cruelty in the treatment of slaves and
said the slave was better dressed, better fed and had
more security than the European laborer or peasant.
Murat felt that slavery was better for the present and
that the abolitionists only did harm by their meddling.
In his view the opponents of slavery were unwisely
seeking to precipitate events; that the total abolition of
slavery in the United States would come about in the
natural course of events when free labor became cheaper
than slave labor. 56
As the abolitionist attacks on slavery became more
violent and the bitterness of the feeling between the
slave and free states increased the people of Florida
became even more closely united in their defense of
slavery. The Whig party in the state, like the national
Whig party, was finally shattered by the slavery issue
and the old Whig leaders vied with the Democrats in
their defense of slavery, even though they continued to
fight for the preservation of the Union. Richard Keith
Call, former territorial governor and a veteran Whig
politician, although bitterly fighting Florida’s withdrawal from the Union, chose the greatest crisis of
secession to pen an eloquent defense of slavery. In a
letter written to John S. Littell, Germantown, Pennsylvania, February 12, 1861, Call said that the institution
of slavery demanded the earnest attention and unprejudiced consideration of every American citizen ; that
it should be considered as an institution which could not
be abolished at that time without fatal consequences to
some parties holding relations to it. He contended that
the labor of the Negro had been absolutely necessary to
clear the forests and develop the resources of the New
World and that the institution of slavery in the process
56. Murat, op. cit., 68-88 While the myth of the inability of white men
to perform field labor in the Southern climate has been disproved
again and again, Murat was quite right in his contention that the
Negro slave was much better fed, clothed and sheltered and had
more security than much of the free white labor of Europe.
N EGRO S LAVERY
IN
F LORIDA
201
of furnishing this necessary labor had also proved to be
a great school of civilization which had served to Christianize and civilize the savage and pagan Negroes
brought from the wilds of Africa. According to Call the
labor of the Negro slave turned to the production of
cotton had clothed nations, had given profitable employment to capital and labor in this country and Great
Britain, had created a great medium of exchange between
Europe and America to the annual value of nearly
$20,000,000, and was the basis for a tremendous seaborne
commerce. Call contended that the Negro seemed designed by the Creator to be a slave and that he was
happiest when living and working under the direction of
a kind master. To free him would not elevate his condition but would merely give him liberty to sink into
sloth and indolence. 57 Call’s defense of slavery was of
no more avail that his opposition to secession: the fate
of the institution of slavery (like the question of the
right of secession) was to be decided by the sword rather
than by the pen. Just a month before Call wrote his
letter to Littell Florida seceded from the Union and the
great conflict which was to destroy slavery commenced
shortly afterwards.
The newspapers of ante-bellum Florida were ardent
in their defense of slavery. One ground on which they
defended slavery was the claim that it was beneficial to
the Negro. The fact that the slave population had increased greatly between 1840 and 1855, while the number
of free Negroes had declined, was regarded as a blessing
to both Negro and white. Said one Florida newspaper:
“In a free state the Negro is merely a hopeless, degraded, wretched and forbidden outcast. He is useless
and causes trouble, as contrasted with his slave brother
who works and raises healthy families.” 58 If any faults
of the system were admitted they were minimized or
57. Richard Keith Call, Union - Slavery - Secession; Letter from Governor R. K. Call, of Florida, to John S. Littell, Philadelphia, 1861,
6-11. Littell was the chairman of the Pennsylvania delegation to the
National Union Convention at Baltimore.
58. St. Augustine, Ancient City, July 12, 1851.
202
T HE F LORIDA H ISTORICAL Q UARTERLY
blamed on abolitionists. Said the Pensacola Gazette:
“That we are entirely exempt from the evils of domestic
slavery is not pretended: it is not pretended that there
are not some among us who exercise over their servants
a rigor of authority inconsistent with the happiness of
the slave and unnecessary to the true interests of the
owners, but they do this, for the most part, under the
pretext furnished by the abolitionists.” 59
Regardless of whether or not the institution of
slavery could be justified, it was, Governor Call said,
“an existing reality, for good or evil” thrown upon the
people of Florida (as upon the rest of the South) by
inheritance from past generations. 60 It was a basic part
of the social and economic pattern of ante-bellum Florida.
Although the majority of Floridians were not slaveholders, nevertheless they supported slavery because
they felt that it was the only means by which society
could control the Negro and protect itself from the
ignorance and semi-barbarism of a race only recently
removed from savagery. Slave labor was also the mainstay in the production of cotton, Florida’s main source
of wealth, as well as being important in the production
of many other commodities. The tremendous economic
importance of slavery in Florida is attested by the fact
that the state census of 1855 showed that the value of
the slave property in the state exceeded the combined
value of every other form of property listed-including
land, buildings outside of towns, household furniture.
The total valuation placed on all the improved and unimproved land in Florida was only $13,910,981 as compared to a total value of $27,250,551 assigned to the
61
slave property in the state. The social and economic
importance of slavery made it a paramount political
issue and lined Florida up with her sister states of the
South in the great sectional controversy which finally
led to the War for Southern Independence.
59. Pensacola Gazette, September 6, 1845.
60. Call, op. cit., 6.
61. Florida Senate Journal, 1855 (Adjourned Session), Appendix, 26.
N EGRO S LAVERY
IN
F LORIDA
203
Although the war brought about the final destruction
of slavery, it also tested the social discipline of slavery
and proved that it was most effective in maintaining its
control over the Negro in wartime as well as in peace.
There was no instance of servile rebellion in Florida
during the war. When virtually all the able-bodied white
men went to the front many families were left almost
entirely in the care of the slaves. The slaves kept their
trust and there was no Negro uprising. The Negro slaves
in general remained loyal to their masters because they
were well-fed, well-housed, well-treated and lastly, wellwatched and controlled. 62 Although 1,044 Florida Negroes were enrolled as soldiers in the Union Army during
the war (most of these were from East Florida where
Federal troops occupied several points along the coast
and were able to recruit slaves seized from their
masters), the great majority of the slaves remained on
the plantations carrying on their regular duties, and
invading Federal forces succeeded in stirring up no
servile uprisings. 63 This was a credit to the slave system;
had it been as harsh and cruel as pictured the Negroes
would have risen in bloody revolt when presented with
the opportunities given by the war. It was also to the
credit of the Negroes that they behaved so well in this
time of crisis.
In the last analysis the slave system in ante-bellum
Florida was not the cruel and heartless institution pictured by the abolitionists. Cruel treatment was rare and
the slaves were seldom overworked. Their physical needs
were well provided for and there was generally a kindly
feeling between master and slave. If the laws and rules
governing slaves and free Negroes were strict and harsh,
their enforcement was in most eases lax and lenient. On
the other hand all masters were not the benevolent patriarchs pictured by Zephaniah Kingsley, nor did all have
the same concern for the welfare of their Negroes as
Edward Bradford.
62. William Watson Davis, The Civil War and Reconstruction in Florida, New York, 1913, 219.
63. Ibid., 222-229.
204
THE FLORIDA HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
If slavery had a tendency to cause some whites to
look down on labor as too menial for them there were
many others who did not scorn to work in the fields with
their slaves. Despite the comments of observers like
Whipple and Stirling slavery was not an unmitigated
blight on economic progress in ante-bellum Florida.
Without the labor of the Negro the clearing of the forests
and the development of agriculture in Florida would
have been greatly retarded. As Dr. Rembert Patrick
points out, the Negroes of ante-bellum Florida, slave
and free, should be given credit for the great contribution made to the state’s economic progress by their productive activity in agriculture and commerce; in the
lumber and naval stores industries; in the construction
of railroads and highways; and in the production of
manufactured goods in town and on the plantation. 64
Although the Negro was not ready in 1865 to assume
all the duties and privileges of a citizen he had earned
his freedom.
64. Rembert Wallace Patrick, Florida Under Five Flags, Gainesville,
1945, 56.
(Concluded)
FRANCIS P. FLEMING IN THE WAR FOR
SOUTHERN INDEPENDENCE
LETTERS
FROM THE
FRONT
edited by EDWARD C. WILLIAMSON
Part III
I hate to avail myself
of the franking Priviledge
having no stamps
Bivouac near Jonesboro, Ga.
Sept. 15th, 1864 1
My dear Aunt Tilly
Your kind and welcome letter of the 26th ultim has
just been received, and the personal of it gave me great
pleasure. I don’t know what becomes of my letters. I
wrote you a day or two after writing Mother, and have
written her several times since, but received one from
her dated the 6th inst, in which she mentions only having
received one from me since I left. But I hope they mill
all turn up after a while. I just got back in time for about
a weeks hard work after leaving Atlanta, such as
marching day and night, throwing up breastworks, skirmishing, and one days hard fighting, but I went through
it all much better than I expected. Except getting perfectly exhausted in the charge on the enemy’s works
on the 31st inst. In going forward the excitement kept
me up beyond my strength, but in the “fall back” I
gave out, and could scarcely have gotten out at all but
for the assistance of a sergeant of my Company. In a
letter to Mother I gave something of a detailed account
of our movements since leaving Atlanta. Get her to let
you see the letter. On the 1st inst Gen. Hardee’s Corp
was attacked by nearly the whole Yankee Army, successfully repulsing them twice. When they charged a third
time in great force, ten lines deep and succeeded in
breaking a portion of our line, thereby causing its evacu1. The main army under Gen. John B. Hood was at Lovejoy’s Station
39 miles southwest of Atlanta. Thomas Robson Hay, Hood’s Tennessee Campaign (New York, 1929), p. 17.
206
THE FLORIDA HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
ation. But they paid dearly for their name of a victory,
losing about six thousand men. 2
We are enjoying an armistice of ten days agreed
upon, to allow of the removal of citizens from Atlanta,
Sherman having ordered them either North or South.
I was rather amused at your lecture about keeping
in good spirits. I am not often troubled with a depression
of them, but merely mentioned a feeling of homesickness
that I had after leaving you all at Monticello. Mother
writes that Matilda is on a visit to Tallahassee. I hope
that she will enjoy it. I presume that Capt. Maxwell is
at home by this time, having left the hospital several
days ago. 3 I have just received my shoes by Mr. Oakley,
a very nice pair and good fit. Write me and tell me all
about your visit to Tallahassee and all my friends etc.
With much love to Aunt Rebecca and yourself.
Your affe nephew
Frank
Camp near Tuscumbia, Ala.
Nov. 6th 1864
Dear Aunt Tilly
After an absence of about four weeks at the Hospital
at Macon, with ercipelas and my chronic complaint, I
arrived here a few days ago and found three letters
from you awaiting me, which I read with great pleasure
and interest the first was dated in June and directed
to Newman-the last Sept. 29th. I had a long and tedious
route to get back to my command after leaving the
Hospital occupying two weeks-had to march about one
2. For Gen. Hardee’s report to Jefferson Davis concerning this fight
see Official Records of the Rebellion, Series 1, XXXVIII, part three,
p. 696. It was only a minor part of the Atlanta campaign and did
not affect the outcome. Gen. Hardee was very dissatisfied with
General Hood’s handling.
3. Capt. David Elwell Maxwell, Co. D, 1st Florida Cavalry Dismounted,
Army of Tennessee. Capt. Maxwell was seriously wounded at the
battle of Atlanta, July 22, 1864 and was compelled to retire from
active service, remaining on crutches long after the war. After the
conflict D. E. Maxwell became a prominent Florida railroad man.
Rowland H. Rerick, Memoirs of Florida (Atlanta, 1902), I, p. 622.
F R A N C I S P. F L E M I N G
207
hundred and fifty miles after leaving the railroad before
overtaking them.
I am glad to hear that you enjoyed so much your
visit to Tallahassee and vacation generally - Poor Elwell! We hear that he has lost his leg. I very much fear
for his life but hope that the report may prove untrue.
I feel towards him as a brother, and would almost
mourn his loss as such. 4
The army is lying quietly at this point on the banks
of the Tennessee, having been here several days. The
first rest since leaving Jonesboro - rumor says that we
cross the river and start for Tennessee tomorrow - which
may, or may not be the case. 5 We never know beforehand
what our movements are. "The War Eagle of the West”
alias Gen. Forrest has made another descent upon his
Yankee prey capturing two gunboats and three transports on the Tennessee river, with a large amount of
clothing etc. He is certainly the greatest Cavalry leader
of the age. 6
The weather is raining, cold, windy and disagreeable
generally particularly as we have no shelter from it.
I rec’d a letter from Uncle George sometime ago,
saying that he expected his wife out soon. He is still
at Thomaston.
Write soon. Your letters are very interesting and a
great pleasure to receive them. On a campaign like
this it is only now and then that we have a chance to
send off letters, so don’t wait to hear from me-letters
directed to my Regiment-Army of Tennessee will always reach the Command. Remember me any of my
friends you may see.
Your affe nephew
Frank
4. Idem.
5. Hood had two alternatives after defeat at Atlanta: one positiveto maneuver against Sherman’s line of communications and force
him to follow: one negative-to await with a badly demoralized
army Sherman’s next move and harass him. Hood decided to choose
the positive. Hay, op. cit., pp. 19-20.
6. Forrest’s raid into Middle Tennessee accomplished nothing of military importance, beyond creating a momentary stir of apprehension
at Nashville. He did not reach his principal objective, the Nashville
and Chattanooga R. R. Ibid., pp. 58-59.
208
THE FLORIDA HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Nov. 12th 64
Since writing the enclosed letter I have been obliged
to return to the Hospital with a severe return of my
old complaint. So much for starting to my command
before I recovered in opposition to the judgment of the
Surgeon. I’ll know better again. “Experience teaches a
hard school, but fools will learn at no other”. I am at
an Officers Hospital at Uniontown Alabama. 7 A good
place in a rich Country. If I don’t get well soon I’ll
make an endeavor to get a leave of absence and visit
Florida. Don’t say anything about it.
Write soon, directing to this place - Officer’s
Hospital.
Affy yours
Frank
Quincy Fla. Dec. 9th-64
Dear Aunt Tilly,
I arrived here today on my way home to Monticello
with a sixty day leave in my pocket. As soon as you can
make it convenient, I hope to see you in Monticello,
when I will remain for some little time. Write to me at
any rate. I’ll drop this at Station Q. on my way down
tomorrow.
Present my respects to Mr. Gadsden and Mrs. Weston, though I only know the latter through yourself.
Your affe nephew
Frank
Madison Fla. May 3-65
My dear Aunt Tilly
I have just received your kind letter and must offer
you very many thanks for your further trouble you have
taken in endeavoring to get me a horse as well as your
kind offer. I feel very, very grateful to you, and hope
that I may have some opportunity of showing it. But
it is too late now. Gen. Johnston has surrendered with
the last army on this side of the Mississippi, and in7. Uniontown, Ala., lies 134 mi. north of Pensacola.
FRANCIS P. FLEMING
209
cluding this Department and I suppose we will all be
paroled in a few days. 8 This is an end of the matter on
this side of the Mississippi. Kirby Smith may hold out
there for a while, and if we get Foreign assistance our
Country may be reclaimed. 9 God in His mercy grant it
-it is our last hope - what a terrible and sad result
after four years of desperate fighting and suffering.
Poor, dear Seton - it somewhat reconciles me to his death
to think that he has not lived to see the Country that he
fought so nobly to save plunged in this disgrace and
humiliation. I don’t think that I can live under Yankee
rule. Had I only myself to care for I would not hesitate
a moment but we must wait and see. Hope I’ll see you
soon. Excuse this hastily written scrawl but it is most
time for the mail to close.
Your Affe Nephew
Frank
Madison, Fla.
May 16th 1865
My dear Aunt Tilly
Yours of the 5th inst I received only last night. I
would like very much to visit you, but must postpone it
for a little while. I have just made arrangements to visit
Marion County, and spend some time with Col. Summer,
a friend of mine, and an old member of the 2nd Fla. a
rich old bachelor living a few miles south of Ocala. 10
I’ll probably be absent some two or three weeks and on
my return will be happy to avail myself of the kind
invitation of Mrs. Wethington and yourself. I’ll probably
go to Lake City today and remain there several days
before starting for Ocala.
8. Gen. Johnston surrendered at Durham Station, N. C., April 26, 1865
to General Sherman.
9. In April 21 Gen. Kirby Smith had published an address to the
soldiers of the Trans-Mississippi Department appealing to them to
continue the fight; however, his soldiers were fast deserting and
he gave up the struggle on June 2. Joseph B. James, “Edmund Kirby
Smith” (unpublished master’s thesis, University of Florida, 1935),
pp. 320-323.
10. There is a W. Summers listed on the roster of Co. D. 2nd Fla.
Soldiers of Florida, p. 93.
210
THE FLORIDA HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Quite a number of persons went down to Jacksonville some days ago to claim their property. Miss Swait
a n d M i s s S - and Mrs. Willey among the number.
They nave not yet returned.
It is said that the place is filled up with Yankeesit will be a worse Yankee hole than ever. I would not
live there again for anything.
I have been quite well for several weeks, in fact
ever since I saw you last. I must try and recruit up
my health somewhat, but I believe that an entire change
of climate is necessary for its complete establishment
and this I trust I will have before long. Have you determined upon any Country to move to? My friends-that
is principally the Daniels and Frank L’Engle as well
as myself think that Brazil offers greater inducements
than any other. 11 Let me hear from you at Lake City
if you get this in time I will probably be there a week.
Your affe nephew
Frank
11. For an account of the experiences of Southerners who went to
Brazil following the war see Lawrence F. Hill, “Confederate Exiles
to Brazil,” Hispanic American Historical Review, VII (1927), p. 192.
(Concluded)
NOW IS THE TIME
Local histories are the foundation stones of State
history. Florida, which is far behind its neighbors in
the knowledge of its history, is beginning to catch up.
A number of local and regional associations are organized, and some are collecting and preserving the historical material of their areas. Miami, Jacksonville,
Pensacola, St. Petersburg, Palm Beach, the Manatee
region, and others have collections. An important recent
addition is the Tampa area with its Hillsborough County
Historical Commission. There is a revival of historical
effort in St. Augustine, the gem of Florida’s historic
past, with the collection and work of the St. Augustine
Historical Society, but their efforts are largely negatived
by the exploitation of historical fakes for personal profit
on a large scale, which reflects on the historical honesty
of the whole State.
There are now three county historical commissions.
Polk county led the way with their successful project,
Pinellas has a commission, and now Tampa and its
region have founded the:
Hillsborough County Historical Commission
By a Special Act of the Florida Legislature at its
last session, a “Hillsborough County Historical Commission and Museum” was created. Thus a long step
was taken towards local recognition of Tampa’s and the
area’s historical past and the collection and preservation of historical material which still remains there.
The Act provides that the ten members of the Commission be appointed by the Board of County Commissioners. These are: D. B. McKay, Horace Hackney,
Mrs. Harry L. Weedon, Mrs. Roy Frierson, Mrs. J. H.
Letton, Theodore Lesley, John Eskridge, G. W. Worthington, Dr. C. T. Young, with Charles H. Pent as secretary. Mrs. John Branch, who has taken a large part in
its creation, is chairman.
Other provisions of the Act are: The Clerk of the
County Court is, ex-officio, its secretary. The Commis-
212
THE FLORIDA HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
sion itself may appoint a clerk for the Commission, who
is to be county historian.
The expressed purposes of the Commission are to
“Collect, record, and preserve historical material and
data, books, pamphlets, maps, manuscripts, family histories, United States census records . . . other objects
illustrative of and relating to the history of Hillsborough
County and South Florida . . . narratives of early
pioneers, Indian tribes and wars . . . its soldiers, schools,
churches; mark locations of forts, Indian mounds or
other places in Hillsborough County where historical
events have occurred.”
“The Clerk of the County Court shall file . . . all
such historical material that the Commission may direct
to be filed.”
The Board of County Commissioners are authorized
to pay expenses of the Commission out of the General
Fund of the county not to exceed $3,000 per annum. The
Board is also authorized to furnish a repository.
The present budget of the Board does not include
an appropriation for the Commission, but the collection
of historical material has been undertaken under the
Act, and suitable rooms will be set aside for headquarters and the preservation and display of historical
material in the new county court house.
HISTORICAL A SSOCIATION
OF
OSCEOLA C OUNTY
On October 25 the “Historical Association of Osceola
County” held its organization meeting at St. Cloud. The
newest of Florida’s local historical organizations elected
Charles E. Hartley, president; Mrs. Elizabeth Cantrell,
vice-president; Mrs. Nell Bodiford, 2nd vice-president;
Mrs. Clara Meacham, secretary-treasurer; Mrs. Lillian
Garrison, librarian; Clifford Tyson, Sam Story, W. G.
Hankins, and Mrs. Alma Hethrington, directors.
At the meeting articles of incorporation were approved. The objectives of the society are: to discuss,
collect, and preserve materials of historical interest
relative to Osceola county. Dr. Charlton W. Tebeau,
NOW
IS THE
TIME
213
President of the Florida Historical Society, conferred
with and spoke before those planning the historical association in June. At the organization meeting Asst. Editor
Williamson of the Quarterly presented some photostats
of old Florida newspapers to Mr. Hartley for the Osceola
historical library and spoke a few words of encouragement.
Hillsborough and Osceola counties are late, as is
every other locality in Florida, in preserving their history; but they are to be congratulated on beginning now.
They will find that much of what was once around them
is gone forever and the remainder is steadily disappearing.
What other community, or town, or county, will be
the next one to realize the opportunity and the need for
early action? Now is the time.
FORT C LINCH M EMORIAL A SSOCIATION
On November 16 last, a celebration was held at Fort
Clinch, adjoining Fernandina, to mark the centennial
of the death of General Clinch, and at which the recently
organized Duncan Lamont Clinch Memorial Association
received its charter.
The present fort was built one hundred years ago
on the north end of Amelia Island; but the site, commanding the entrance to St. Marys river and Cumberland sound was recognized as strategic in early times,
and Oglethorpe occupied it in 1736. The British erected
a fort there during the American Revolution, and the
Island was the center of the Patriot War troubles of
1812.
Construction of the present fort was begun in 1850;
but such a project was a great undertaking in those days,
and it was not completed at the outbreak of the War for
Southern Independence, though occupied by the Confederate army. On the approach of a greatly superior
Federal invasion force it was abandoned together with
the adjacent earth-works in 1862. The fort was used
214
THE FLORIDA HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
during the Spanish-American War for the concentration
of troops, but was entirely abandoned later.
Rehabilitated by the Civilian Conservation Corps,
for the past nine years it has been a State Park with
an interesting and growing historical museum, of which
J. William Decker is superintendent. With the organization of the Memorial Association its future is assured.
THE HALIFAX REGION
The Ormond Village Improvement Association has
published Early Plantation of the Halifax: Concerning
the Ruins, by Edith P. Stanton. (24 p. illustrations,
1949).
Mrs. Stanton came to Ormond in 1887 and ever since
has been gathering “facts and legends about the earliest
days of the Halifax Country.”
The region attracted a few settlers in the British
period, and others during the second Spanish occupation.
The soil and climate were thought to be especially
adapted to the growing of sugar cane and, as would be
expected, the ruins are those of sugar mills. A number
of sites of the area are described both as to their settlement and what remains today: the Dun-Lawton Sugar
Mill, Hernandez Point, Mount Oswald, Carrickfergus,
the King’s Road, Rozetta, Damietta, Bulowville, Mound
Grove, San Antonio de Anacape. An account of Audubon’s visit to the region in 1831 is included, and there
is a summary of the now almost forgotten fighting
during the Seminole War in the Halifax region. There
are several full-page illustrations of the present sites.
THE TERRA C EIA I NDIAN M OUND
A noteworthy Indian mound on Terra Ceia Island
recently given to the State by Mr. & Mrs. Karl A. Bickel
and dedicated as a “State Monument,” is the first
archeological site to be taken over by the Florida Park
Service. This is a ceremonial mound, distinguished from
a burial mound, of the period beginning about the middle
NOW
IS THE
TIME
215
of the fifteenth century and extending into the historical
era.
EDISON
AND
FORT MYERS
It might be suggested that the rest of his name
should be included; but George and Abraham are never
needed, and Edison anywhere means one man only. Fort
Myers and Edison are so intimately connected that any
mention of him in Florida means both, so even the Fort
Myers might be omitted. This connection is brought out
in a recent brochure Bamboo and Sailing Ships: The
Story of Thomas Alva Edison and Fort Myers, Florida
by Florence Fritz. Published by the author, Fort Myers,
1949, 52 pages, it is fully illustrated. Edison’s horticultural and chemical experiments there with growing
plants for their rubber content is a feature of the
narrative.
A MANATEE CENTENNIAL
The centennial of the Manatee Methodist Church
was celebrated in October last, and in commemoration
a brief account of the century of the church was written
by Miss Eva M. Gates. This has been published by the
Church as One Hundred Years of Manatee Methodism
1849-1949 (24 pages, 25 cents) with several illustrations.
ARCHEOLOGICAL SITES
A recent publication is: ‘‘Florida Anthropological
Society Publications, Number One: Two Archeological
Sites in Brevard County, Florida [by] Hale G. Smith.
Published at the University of Florida, Gainesville, 1949.
John W. Goggin, editor.”
There are thirty-one pages of text and four full-page
half-tone plates, recording the findings of Mr. Smith on
his excavations at two sites on the off-shore bar between
Indian River and the Ocean, near the Brevard and Indian
River counties division line. One of the sites is at least
partly historical, and the plates picture both Indian and
European articles. The other site, just to the south, is
without historical materials, and hence was abandoned
before contact of the inhabitants with Europeans, probably dating from 1200 to 1650 A. D.
The first site, called “Higgs Site” by the author,
is that one investigated by Charles D. Higgs, and described with his findings in this QUARTERLY XXI (July
1942) pp. 25-39. At the time of writing, Mr. Smith was
assistant archeologist, Florida Park Service. He is now
assistant professor of anthropology, Florida State University.
Those who are interested in the Florida Indians,
either before or after contact with Europeans, are invited to become members of the Florida Anthropological
Society. Dues are $3.00 a year, with a student membership of $1.50. All publications of the Society are sent
to members without cost. Application for membership
should be made to Ripley P. Bullen, Florida Park Service, Seagle Building, Gainesville.
JACKSONVILLE HISTORICAL SOCIETY
The publication of Papers, Volume II, by the Jacksonville Historical Society is a noteworthy event in the
recent writing of Florida’s history, rendered more so
by the inclusion of four hand-colored, and one other,
engravings of Osceola; these being the important surviving likenesses of Florida’s most famous Indian. The
appreciation and comment of one Florida historian“exquisite”-will be approved and seconded by many.
The publication of Florida-and especially Jacksonville - historical material was resumed by the Society
two years ago when volume one of Papers was issued.
The two volumes include papers and addresses written
for and read at their program meetings by local members
and other Florida historians.
The portraits of Osceola were colored by two Jacksonville artists, Mr. and Mrs. Howard J. Ahrens, and
they are accompanied by descriptions of each portrait
and the artists who drew the originals, all written by
Joseph E. McCarthy after much research.
The Editorial Board for this issue of Papers was
Miss Audrey Broward, chairman, Henry H. Buckman
III, P. H. Gaskins, Joseph E. McCarthy, and Miss Dena
Snodgrass. The volume, of ninety-six pages, is wellprinted and attractive in every way. These seven articles
are included:
THE OLD C ITY C EMETERY
More than anything else, our old cemeteries carry
us back into the past of our own home town, and they
appeal to many who feel no great interest in other
history. Jacksonville has one of these in which is recorded in stone much of her history of the past one
hundred years.
Mr. Philip S. May, who has long taken part in the
work of the Florida Historical Society as well as that
of the Jacksonville Historical Society, tells us in the
leading article of Papers what he has been able to learn
of Jacksonville’s “Old City Cemetery.” The plot was
given to the city in 1852 by Captain Charles Willey, who
218
THE FLORIDA HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
first came to Jacksonville as master of a trading
schooner, and some of whose letters in 1831 are included
in this issue of Papers. But the site apparently had been
used for burials earlier. Later, Captain Willey conveyed
an adjoining acre to the Bishop of the Roman Catholic
Diocese of Florida, the Rt. Rev. Augustine Verot.
Jacksonville at that time, 1852, was described,
says the author, as . . . a small village, containing
perhaps, 400 people all told; the residences, with
here and there an exception, were of wood, one story,
cheaply built; three or four stores on Bay Street,
rough buildings and rude fittings, were all in the
business line, while a slab wharf, small and rickety,
answered for vessels. A small steamboat made a
weekly trip to and from Savannah, and a still smaller
one ran once a week to and from Enterprise. There
was not a wheeled vehicle in town, except a secondhand hearse and a dray.
Mr. May concludes:
“On this little tract of land . . . are situated practically all of Jacksonville’s physical links with its past.”
JACKSONVILLE
AND
NEW YORK TRADE
IN
1831
Seven letters of Charles Willey have been edited
by Henry H. Buckman III. Willey was master of a
schooner trading between New York and Jacksonville
in 1831. He wrote three letters from Jacksonville (or
St. Johns, E. F., as he dated them) and four from New
York regarding his voyages and cargoes. They are of
much interest and have historical value for the light
they throw on this trade at that period.
His schooner arrived at Jacksonville in October 1831
after slow sailing as far as Charleston bar, but made it
from there to St. Johns bar in one day. He crossed
without a pilot and without “strinken.” He found there
a vessel loaded with 135,000 oranges for New York, but
the market was up to “a Dollar pir 100,” so he went up
the river to the head of Black Creek looking for cargo.
JACKSONVILLE
HISTORICAL
SOCIETY
219
He sells his own cargo of flour, mackerel, rum, gin,
potatoes, onions, pork, salt, dry goods and cider, and
gives the prices received for each. He takes on 165,000
oranges for which he paid $7.50 and 5,700 ‘‘Lammons
at $3.75 per 1,000.” He takes on also “4 Pasingers at
$16.”
He was twelve days to New York. “I acspeted to
luse all the oranges but I did not luse enny.” He sold
some at $18, but averaged less than $12.00 per 1,000.
The schooner left New York again on December 5
with cargo and six or eight passengers “. . . we had six
days passege to the Bar and we laed off and on one
day and Night for a Pilot but at was so rugh that the
Pilts cold not git out so I ran in the wind hedded me
of and I got on the south brakers and was obliged to
heave over part of our deck lode . . . thair is a nother
vessel on the Bar about 100 touns with sugar from
Cuba . . .”
Captain Willey writes also of charters and insurance
and other business relating to shipping. He evidently
plans to take a cargo of pine lumber this trip, but the
letters end here.
J ACKSONVILLE
AND THE
ST. J OHNS
An address read before the Society at a late program meeting is included: "Ninety-six Years of Engineering Development on the St. Johns River,” by Oscar
G. Rawls, Corps of Engineers, U. S. Army.
In emphasizing the relation of Jacksonville to the
River he writes: “. . . it may indeed be said that Jacksonville owes its existence, its early development, and
much of its present commercial status to the river which
passes through the city and provides its outlet to the
Atlantic Ocean.” Its location was determined by the
width of the river which is narrower there than at any
other point between Palatka and the mouth.
The early river traffic is described, with the types
of steamers, the growth of commerce and what this consisted of, both northwards to Savannah and Charleston
220
THE FLORIDA HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
and later to New York, and up the River to Palatka
and in time farther south. The shallow bar at the mouth
was a great impediment and even barrier for decades,
and much of the paper is given to the deepening and
straightening of the channel to the sea. The several
projects for improvement are fully described, to the
present one of a minimum depth of thirty-four feet from
Jacksonville to the Atlantic.
H ENRY B. P LANT
At the spring program meeting of 1947 Mr. John
C. Blocker, historian and county attorney of Pinellas
county, read a paper on Henry B. Plant. Second only
to Flagler as a Florida developer, Plant first came to
the State in 1853; and, like Flagler, was drawn by the
climate and the illness of his wife. But there was no
thought of development apparently until the 1880’s,
when he commenced his buying and building of railroads down the peninsula.
There is a brief sketch of Plant’s life before he
began his work in Florida, but most of the narrative is
of the “. . . network of railroads extending over Florida,
the southern part of Georgia, and sections of South
Carolina and Alabama. There were fleet connections at
Port Tampa with six sailings each week to Havana . . .
Plant also operated steamship lines on the Chattahoochee
and St. Johns rivers, and a line of small steamers connecting Tampa with St. Petersburg and Manatee River
points . . . At his death he controlled twelve railway
corporations with almost 2,000 miles of track.”
Mr. Blocker continues: “The Tampa Bay Hotel
was near the heart of H. B. Plant . . . It cost $3,000,000,”
and one writer is quoted as considering it “one of the
modern wonders of the world.” Plant hotels were built
also at Port Tampa, Punta Gorda, Fort Myers, and
other Florida resort cities.
GOVERNOR DUV AL
Mr. William D. Barfield, president of the Jacksonville Historical Society, as a graduate student at Prince-
J ACKSONVILLE HISTORICAL SOCIETY
221
ton University, wrote his thesis for the Master’s degree
on Governor William P. DuVal of Florida, which is still
the most extensive study of DuVal. His contribution to
Papers is “The First Civil Governor and the Capital of
Florida,’’ in which he tells of DuVal’s part in founding
Tallahassee, and the first efforts to remove the Indians
away from the encroaching settlers.
It is hoped that Mr. Barfield will tell us more of
what he knows about our colorful first governor. But
with this plea is the wish that he will reconsider his
statement that “The population consisted, [Florida in
1821] with some exception, of West Indian traders,
smugglers, privateersmen, Indians, runaway Negroes,
and renegade white men from the original thirteen states
and the eleven other states which had been admitted
prior to that time,”- a statement which should not go
unchallenged. How about it, President Barfield?
THE SOCIETY
Mr. Herbert Lamson, former president of the
Florida Historical Society and of the Jacksonville Historical Society, recounts the activities of that Society
during the past two years, with the titles of papers read
at all program meetings. These show the widespread
and continued interest in Jacksonville-and, indeed, in
Florida-history which has always been evident there.
Here also is a list of historical material donated during
the biennium by numerous members and friends. These
were added to the historical collection of the Society
now at the Jacksonville Public Library.
A Membership Roster completes the volume.
THE HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION OF
SOUTHERN FLORIDA
The thirty-second program meeting, and the first
of this season, was held by the Historical Association
of Southern Florida on November 16. This was devoted
to the Everglades National Park, in which all of Florida
has a lively and growing interest. Dan Beard, Superintendent, described what has been accomplished as well
as future plans. Willard E. Dilley, Park Naturalist,
told of his work there; and Joseph C. Moore, Park
Biologist, chose as his subject “The Never Ending
Search.” A natural history collection from the Park
was displayed.
Other program meetings are planned for the coming
months.
TEQUESTA
The Annual of the Association, Tequesta, is being
distributed as this issue of the QUARTERLY goes to the
printer, and will be reviewed in our next number. This
is the ninth issue (1949) and, as always, contains historical articles relating to South Florida, some of which
were read at the program meetings of the Association
and others written for publication in Tequesta. Dr.
Charlton W. Tebeau of the University of Miami, and
our president, is editor, as he has been for the past four
issues.
THE FLORIDA HISTORICAL SOCIETY
Due to the recent cut in all expenditures of the
State, the appropriation which the State has given the
Society since 1941 through the State Library Board has
been suspended temporarily, hence this issue of the
QUARTERLY is smaller than usual, as was the last issue.
It is expected that ere the next number goes to press we
shall receive this grant again and be enabled to resume
our former size.
This issue marks the twenty-fifth year of the present
editorship of the QUARTERLY, as the first number was
that for January 1925. It recalls to mind the continuous
encouragement and support the members have given the
Society and the QUARTERLY during this period, even
through the years of the depression when the dues must
have been a real sacrifice to many. It is pleasing to the
editor to remember that the criticism which he often
asked for was always given as helpful suggestions. He
is grateful for that and for all.
NOTICE
OF THE
ANNUAL MEETING
OF
1950
At the invitation of the University of Florida
the Annual Meeting of the Florida Historical
Society will be held at the University in Gainesville
on April 13, 14, and 15. The Board of Directors will
meet on Thursday evening the 13th; there will be
historical programs throughout Friday, with the
annual dinner on Friday evening. A program meeting on Saturday will be followed by the annual
business meeting and election of officers at noon.
Professor Rembert W. Patrick is General Chairman,
and Edward C. Williamson is Program Chairman.
The programs have largely been planned and
will be interesting as well as historical. Gainesville
is centrally located and can be reached from much
of the State in a few hours, so a large attendance is
hoped for, especially of members at the business
meeting. The P. K. Yonge Library of Florida His-
224
THE FLORIDA HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
tory, a division of the University Library, is an
attraction to the history-minded. The growing interest in Florida history at the University makes it
a stimulating place to meet, and we have not met
there since 1936. Your friends will be welcome at
all except the brief business meeting, during which
they may visit the Florida State Museum which is
the outstanding museum of the Southeast. Will you
not be with us.
CHARLTON W. TEBEAU, President
The following correspondence is included in the
QUARTERLY for the information of the members of the
Society and for their consideration. No other proposals
have yet been received, but at least one is expected.
UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA
GAINESVILLE
Dr. C. W. Tebeau, President
The Florida Historical Society
Box 344, Miami University Branch
Coral Gables, Florida
November 2, 1949
Dear Dr. Tebeau:
Almost a century has passed since the Florida
Historical Society was established as a custodian and
interpreter of the history of the State of Florida. Though
the historical societies in most of the other states have
had generous governmental support, the Florida Historical Society, with little state aid, has published a
quarterly journal and maintained a library of Floridiana. This outstanding record is a tribute to the selfless
interest and initiative of past and present members of
the Society.
The University of Florida is cognizant of the contribution which the Society has made and realizes the
financial burden involved in publishing a quarterly,
housing a library, and employing a librarian. For many
FLORIDA HISTORICAL SOCIETY
225
years the University has desired to assist in the work
of the Florida Historical Society. In fact, this wish for
a part in the endeavors of the Society led to a premature
offer after World War I when the facilities of the
University were not adequate for proper service. Now,
however, the University has adequate facilities to offer
the Society, faculty members and students who have
demonstrated their interest in the history of Florida,
and a University Press for publication of contributions
to knowledge.
On October 15, 1949, the Board of Control authorized the University of Florida to extend the Florida
Historical Society an invitation and the following offer:
(1) Permanent and rent-free space in the new, air-conditioned University Library building for the library and
collections of the Society; (2) An annual grant of
$2000.00 for the purposes of paying one-half of the
yearly printing costs of the QUARTERLY and for such other
expenses as are necessary for the functioning of the
Society; (3) The editorial services of a qualified member
of the University staff for editing the QUARTERLY.
The University of Florida makes this offer in the
belief that acceptance of it by the Florida Historical
Society will be advantageous to the people of Florida.
The University does not now, and will not in the future,
place limitations on the freedom and activity of the
Society. On the contrary the Society will have sole charge
of its library and be responsible for the employment and
supervisions of a librarian, while the University supplies
housing for the library. The University does ask that an
annual report, directed to the Committee on University
Libraries of the University of Florida, be made on the
expenditure of the $2000.00 annual grant. The University
will consider for possible acceptance any limitation or
stipulation which the Society may wish to include in a
mutual agreement.
The facilities of the Society’s library would be useful
to our students and faculty and would stimulate the
study and writing of Florida history. The University
226
THE FLORIDA HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
of Florida is working toward the establishment of a
great center for the study of Florida history, and the
location of the Society on the University campus would
be of great aid in the realization of this project.
As President of the University of Florida, it affords
me great pleasure to extend this invitation and offer
to the Florida Historical Society.
Sincerely yours,
[signed]
J. HILLIS MILLER,
President
FLORIDA HISTORICAL SOCIETY
ST. AUGUSTINE, FLORIDA
President J. Hillis Miller
University of Florida
Gainesville, Florida
November 7, 1949
Dear President Miller:
In behalf of the Florida Historical Society, I wish
to thank you for your letter of November 2, offering
aid in the solution of our financial problems. You have
very correctly stated our difficulty. Our principal activities and services are the maintenance of library service
and the publication of the QUARTERLY. Our income from
memberships will finance only one of the major activities.
We shall present the University of Florida’s proposal to the Board of Directors and to the membership
as early as reasonably possible, probably at the next
annual meeting of the Society at the University of
Florida in the Spring of 1950. There will be other proposals, but it is a great comfort to know that we shall
not be compelled to curtail the program of services we
aspire to provide.
The terms you propose seem to me very reasonable,
as well as indicating an awareness of the desirability
that the Society retain a large measure of responsibility
for the work of the organization. Past experience indi-
FLORIDA HISTORICAL SOCIETY
227
cates that where historical commissions or academic
institutions assume complete responsibility the membership is likely to become less interested and less active.
The terms you suggested seem to offer a happy compromise that will be mutually beneficial to the Society and
the University, both of which represent the public interest in this matter.
Thank you again for this very practical proposal.
Please do not be impatient if we seem slow to act in
this matter. It is of critical importance to us, and we
shall act only after thorough and careful consideration
and the approval of the membership.
[signed]
Sincerely yours,
C. W. TEBEAU, President
Florida Historical Society
UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA
GAINESVILLE
November 10, 1949
My dear Dr. Tebeau:
I greatly appreciate your very prompt reply to my
recent letter tendering the Florida Historical Society
a home on our campus. We understand, of course, that
it will be necessary for this proposal to clear through
the customary channels. We shall await the action of
your Board of Directors and membership with a great
deal of interest.
With kind regards, I am
Very sincerely yours,
J. HILLIS MILLER
[signed]
President
DR. C. W. TEBEAU, President
Florida Historical Society
228
THE FLORIDA HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
CONTRIBUTORS
TO THIS NUMBER OF THE
QUARTERLY
Samuel Proctor is Assistant Professor in Social Sciences,
University of Florida.
Edwin L. Williams Jr. is Instructor in History, Emory
University.